Loco Over Four Loko
How a fruity, brightly colored malt beverage drove politicians to madness in two short years
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October 20, 2010: Based on a single case of a 19-year-old who came to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia with chest pains after drinking Four Loko, ABC News warns that the stuff, which contains about one-third as much caffeine per ounce as coffee, can cause fatal heart attacks in perfectly healthy people. “That was the only explanation we had,” says the doctor who treated the 19-year-old, before extrapolating further from his sample of one: “This is a dangerous product from what we’ve seen. It doesn’t have to be chronic use. I think it could happen to somebody on a first-time use.”
October 25, 2010: Citing the hospitalization of nine Central Washington University students for alcohol poisoning following an October 8 party in Roslyn where they drank Four Loko along with beer, rum, and vodka, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna calls for a ban on caffeinated malt liquor. “The wide availability of the alcoholic energy drinks means that a single mistake can be deadly,” he says. “They’re marketed to kids by using fruit flavors that mask the taste of alcohol, and they have such high levels of stimulants that people have no idea how inebriated they really are.” McKenna’s office cites Ken Briggs, chairman of the university’s physical education department, who says Four Loko is known as “liquid cocaine” as well as “blackout in a can,” and with good reason, since it is “a binge drinker’s dream.”
October 26, 2010: McKenna’s reaction to college students who drank too much Four Loko, like Peter Mercer’s at Ramapo, attracts national attention. A Pennsylvania E.R. doctor quoted by The New York Times calls Four Loko “a recipe for disaster” and “one of the most dangerous new alcohol concoctions I have ever seen.”
November 1, 2010: The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board asks retailers to stop selling Four Loko, which is produced at the former Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, because it may “pose a significant threat to the health of all Pennsylvanians.” State Rep. Robert Donatucci (D-Philadelphia) says “there is overriding circumstantial evidence that this combination may be very dangerous,” and “until we can determine its effect on people and what kind of danger it may present, it should be yanked from the shelves.”
November 3, 2010: Two Chicago aldermen propose an ordinance that would ban Four Loko from the city where its manufacturer is based. “I think it is completely irresponsible,” says one, “to manufacture and market a product that can make young people so intoxicated so fast.”
November 4, 2010: The Michigan Liquor Control Commission bans 55 “alcohol energy drinks,” including Four Loko, Joose, a “hard” iced tea that no longer exists, a cola-flavored variety of Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails, and an India pale ale brewed with yerba maté. “With all the things that are happening, it’s very alarming,” explains commission chairwoman Nida Samona. “It’s more serious than any of us ever imagined.”
November 8, 2010: Oklahoma’s Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission bans Four Loko from the state “in light of the growing scientific evidence against alcohol energy drinks, and the October 8th incident involving Four Loko in Roslyn, Washington.”
November 9, 2010: NPR quotes Washington State University student Jarod Franklin as an authority on Four Loko’s effects. “We would start to lose those inhibitions,” he says, “and then [it would be like], ‘How did you get a broken knuckle?’ ‘Oh, I punched through a three-inch layer of ice [because] you bet me I couldn’t.’ ”
November 10, 2010: The Washington State Liquor Control Board bans beverages that “combine beer, strong beer, or malt liquor with caffeine, guarana, taurine, or other similar substances.” Gov. Christine Gregoire, who recommended the ban, explains her reasoning: “I was particularly concerned that these drinks tend to target young people. Reports of inexperienced or underage drinkers consuming them in reckless amounts have given us cause for concern.…By taking these drinks off the shelves we are saying ‘no’ to irresponsible drinking and taking steps to prevent incidents like the one that made these college students so ill.”
Sen. Schumer urges the New York State Liquor Authority to “immediately ban caffeinated alcoholic beverages.” He says drinks like Four Loko “are a toxic, dangerous mix of caffeine and alcohol, and they are spreading like a plague across the country.” Schumer claims “studies have shown that caffeinated alcoholic beverages raise unique and disturbing safety concerns, especially for younger drinkers.” While they “can be extremely hazardous for teens and adults alike,” he says, they “pose a unique danger because they target young people” with their “vibrantly colored aluminum can colors and funky designs.”
November 12, 2010: A CBS station in Baltimore reports that two cans of Four Loko caused a 21-year-old Maryland woman to “lose her mind,” steal a friend’s pickup truck, and crash it into a telephone pole, killing herself.
A CBS station in Philadelphia reports that a middle-aged suburban dad “spiraled into a hallucinogenic frenzy” featuring “nightmarish delusions” after drinking a can and a half of Four Loko. “It was like he was stuck inside a horror movie and he couldn’t get out and I couldn’t get him out,” the man’s wife says. “In his mind, he had harmed all of our kids and he had to kill me and kill himself so that we could go to heaven to take care of them. Next thing I know, he was having convulsions [and] making gurgling sounds as if someone were choking him, and then he stopped breathing.”
Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal urges the FDA to “impose a nationwide ban on these dangerous and potentially deadly drinks.”
November 14, 2010: Under pressure from Gov. David Paterson and the state liquor authority, Phusion Projects agrees to stop shipping Four Loko to New York. “We have an obligation to keep products that are potentially hazardous off the shelves,” says the liquor authority’s chairman.
Bruce Goldberger tells the New Haven Register Four Loko is “a very significant problem” for the “instant gratification generation.” The kids today, he says, “text, they have iPhones, and they can access the Internet any minute of their life. And now, they can get drunk for literally less than $5, and they can get drunk very rapidly.”
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Good morning reason!
The Cosmotarians and Liberaltarians shoue be saying Happy Mawlid al-Nabi like all good Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR supporters should. -
On noes. They might be spreading herpes
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Even worse, they might come over here and kill all of our Datsuns.
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dude, you were so much better when you did "Moonshadow" and "Wild World."
What happened to you, Cat?
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The first cut was the deepest.
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You're telling me!
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"Resistance is futile!"
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Word!
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Too many rides on the Peace Train.
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Blasphemy!
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Instead of sitting around on the internet all day, posting pointless messages about "freedom" and abusing yourselves to pictures of loose women, why not do something productive and surrender your lives to Allah?
I want it all!
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Please go away.
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The first prohibition in America did not work. Perhaps if they tried a new one, where only of 40's are allowed to drink, it might work.
These people who want to ban all these things probably want to achieve a Stepford wives type society where everyone is so happy and so polite, I mean who would not want to live in such a society, right ?
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David Katz, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, [says] “It’s hard to imagine any argument for such products. It’s also hard to imagine anyone objecting to a ban of such products.”
Sheesh, David. You don't have much of an imagination, do you?
What's harder to imagine is that there are
35 such centers nationwide.Also, Prevention Research Center = PRC. Coincidence? /snark
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That's what happens when you let the Progressive Health Nazis achieve influence. Why isn't America outraged when the First Lady pressures Wal-Mart to sell healthy foods? Where is the outrage against Hospitals that choose not to hire smokers or demand that smokers quit? Why isn't anyone saying anything about the Department of Transportation banning electronic cigarettes on the air without even holding a hearing?
Yeah, everyone says "it won't happen to be" but before you know it the government will be banning something you like, and then what will you do?
New Budget, New Tax Hikes: Obama does it again.
http://libertarians4freedom.bl.....es-it.html -
Are you related to Hercules Deviated Septosis, or whatever the hell his name is?
You never see them in the same thread.
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"Hercules Deviated Septosis"
now that's funny! that guy is out there.
"Earth to Hercules, earth to Hercules, put down your Loco!" -
I am not.
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I am not.
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Is that a double negative?
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No, it's a double reply. It happens. Blame the computer.
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more turds of wisdom from the PRC...
"Thus we are "Research Centers" not because we work in a laboratory, but because we measure effectiveness"
measuring effectiveness = more legislation needed -
“It’s a very bad combination having alcohol, plus caffeine, plus the brain of a young person."
But if you add eye of newt and a pinch of kosher salt, and liquify it, it's pretty good.
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Clearly we must ban young people from having brains.
Or maybe they've already beaten us to that...
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Best tesimonial I've yet seen:
“You just gotta drink it and drink it and drink it and drink it and not even worry about it because it’s awesome and you’re just partying and having fun and getting wild and drinking it.”
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I like how it starts out as a piece of advice and just never goes anywhere at all.
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It goes to ... HELL!!
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Great to see that alcohol and it's place in social order hasn't changed since 1736.
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"A grand total of two studies have found that college students who drink alcoholic beverages containing caffeine (typically bar- or home-mixed cocktails unaffected by the FDA’s ban) tend to drink more and are more prone to risky behavior than college students who drink alcohol by itself."
So I take it that those who drink nothing but straight tequila all night are safer than those who drink rum and cokes, and we should be encouraging young people to do the former?
Just askin'...
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'Once an intoxicant has been identified with a disfavored group—in this case, heedless, hedonistic “young adults”'
Or, in the case of the "malt liquor" analogy that Frank Bruni wrote about... well, you know.
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David Katz, director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, [says] “It’s hard to imagine any argument for such products. It’s also hard to imagine anyone objecting to a ban of such products.”
Die in a fire, Dave.
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see? twisted logic wins the day again!
i like what Old Mexican did on another thread...
"It's hard to imagine any argument for such products.
It's also hard to imagine anyone objecting to a ban of such products."
Therefore; because it's hard to imagine, we should ban such products.
butt-speak at its finest... -
... and slowly, with a caffeine IV drip so you can stay awake whilst the flames singe and sear your libtard, nanny-state infused flesh.
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I guess it's back to dissolving crushed-up NoDoz in cans of Milwaukee's Best for me.
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That's good, Son.
Back to basics.
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Was the chick who crashed into the telephone pole driving a Toyota?
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Was in a deli in lower Manhattan the other night where a Wall Street couple was paying an extra $50 for the LAST CASE of Four Loko.
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So where the HELL are the ethanol-sotten, hyper-caffeinated OWS freedom-fighters on THIS???
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Al this reminds me of those ridiculous, insane "Reefer Madness" propaganda films they used to make us watch years, and years, and YEARS ago!
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Feb. 15, 2011: 4 Loco provides material for yet another Sullum on 4 Loco. Side effect: it generates another Colon too.
Just teasing you guys. Not a bad summary, Jacob, and I like the cartoon too.
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Sorry to be picky, but it is THE Ohio State University.
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As a physician, I am not surprised the FDA's behavior in this case. The FDA routinely makes decisions without any basis in science. It bans drugs based on whim rather than rigorous scientific study and maintains marijuana prohibition despite the mountain of scientific data against such policy.
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Hey, FDA: Get your head out of your collective PIRG-beholden arse and go after something demonstrably dangerous - Homeopathy, a scourge of pernicious snakeoil marketers if there ever was one.
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It's unbelievable how many educated people in our society; doctors, scientists, politicians, etc: could be so ignorant of the tremendous logical flaws in extrapolating so much from so little. Its common for people too mistakenly infer causality, but on this dumb of a scale?
Two schools from the same rural region of one state. I mean common, anyone from Eastern Washington knows kids at Central and WSU have nothing to do but rage their faces off. WSU went through a serious riot phase once upon a time. Kids there get drunk and punch things.
And I say this as somebody who has relatively recently partied with those dancing girls in underwear at WSU.
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It's unbelievable how many educated people in our society; doctors, scientists, politicians, etc: could be so ignorant of the tremendous logical flaws
Actually, it is perfectly believable.
Politicians need things to ban and regulate to "protect us from ourselves."
Scientists access billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars conducting "research" that tends to support the foregone conclusions of politicians. (Research that contradicts politicians' ends tends not to lead to additional funding).
And physicians benefit from a licensing scheme that restricts entry into the market of health care providers -- increasing income -- while also creating additional new "health crises" that can be transformed into new "treatments" for "conditions" and further juice the coffers.
It's a nice trifecta for personal financial enrichment at the expense of everyone else.
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Dam, this means it's back to 5-Hour energy/Tahitian Treat/Vodka cocktails.
Oh and I'll make sure I mix it in the Tahitian Treat bottle so I can throw out the other containers. Then the police can't blame the wreck on the vodka or the 5 hour energy, just the Tahitian Treat.
Or say that the combo made me too drunk, too fast.
Anyone remember a similar hullabaloo back in the 80's over wine coolers? That the attractive packaging made them tempting to children? Or how the two-liter bottles encouraged more drinking?
Where is the outrage over other malt beverages that don't even taste like they have alcohol in them?
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Damn, that sounds YUMMY!
... now, where are my car keys ...
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Sshh no one tell the FDA about Coffee Liqueurs
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Great article, I'll have a vodka red bull to celebrate the ban!
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I need an attorney that will sue four loko for me how dose it work do i have to pay money or will they represent me for free till we win? My son drank four loko and now is on trial for murder he has no memory of the night at all or having a gun. i need help i need an attorney to take my case i have no money and my sons only 14 years old being tried as an adult please someone help
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ThaNk U
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asfzxvcas
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we've got many new users here who recently got an Apple iPod touch or an www.apple.com/ipod/start. -
i have bad chest pains when i dring 4 loko. and joose! i didnt know it had such high levels of cafeen! i have slight high blood pressure. i will never drink this again. i have chest pain right now and am buzzed and thought I should google this pain to be safe! then I read this. holy Sh*t! this is crazy. they should post this on the can you drink,right? good luck guys!!! God bless