The Drink Formerly Known As Cocaine

Jacob Sullum | May 9, 2007

In response to threats from the Food and Drug Administration, Redux Beverages has decided to rename and reposition its Cocaine energy drink. The FDA faulted Redux for marketing the high-caffeine, no-cocaine drink as "a street drug alternative," which, by the agency's logic, makes the product both a "misbranded drug" and an "unapproved new drug," even though its ingredients are neither new nor unapproved. Redux hopes changing the marketing will magically transform its sweet, stimulating beverage back into an ordinary foodstuff. But it will also eliminate the product's main point of distinction from its competitors.