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FDA Bans Killer Caffeine Cocktails

November 19th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments
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The only thing worse than a bunch of drunk college kids is a bunch of dead college kids who overdosed on alcohol. That’s why the FDA finally moved this week to ban alcoholic beverages enhanced with Caffeine and other stimulants. One of the drinks is Four Loko:

… a concoction of four main ingredients – caffeine; malt liquor; guarana, a South American plant whose seeds are rich in caffeine; and taurine, an amino acid that some think can boost athletic and mental performance – plus sugar and artificial flavoring.

Four Loko, sold in 23.5-ounce brightly colored cans containing 12 percent alcohol for about $2.50 each, has been marketed aggressively in multiple fruit flavors on college campuses. The drinks and similar products have become the focus of parties on many campuses. Read more…

The manufacturer of Four Loko, a drink whose popularity has gone viral on campuses across the nation, has already notified consumers and the FDA that it is removing the caffeine, taurine, and guarana from its products:

“We have repeatedly contended – and still believe, as do many people throughout the country – that the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe. If it were unsafe, popular drinks like rum and colas or Irish coffees that have been consumed safely and responsibly for years would face the same scrutiny that our products have recently faced.

Guns are also safe, until someone gets shot.

What you need to know:

If you’re a parent to teenagers, you’ll probably be sighing in relief. If you’re a teenager, you know very well what your predecessors did – mix red bull and vodka.

So is this intervention in consumer choice warranted? Or just another example of a nanny state?

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  • Luke

    Warranted. Irish coffees aren’t meant to be sucked down like an energy drink, which is essentially what four loko, and other drinks like it, are marketed as. And while rum and coke contains some caffeine and some alcohol, it isn’t in nearly the same amounts as the ridiculous premixed garbage that is four loko. Get this crap off the shelves. And the company defending it should be ashamed of themselves, though they did finally do the responsible thing and reformulate.

  • http://www.awakenedwellness.com Rachel Assuncao

    I agree with Luke. These drinks were designed to be marketed to teenagers and young college kids. We were all way to inexperienced with alcohol at that age to know when to stop (or to care). Being too drunk to continue drinking but still energized enough to keep going and keep drinking isn’t a good state for anyone to be in – especially for these young people. I’m pretty sure no one drinks Irish coffee like that – it’s meant to be one after dinner drink.

    I think it’s great that the FDA has actually used their powers for once to put a stop to something bad. Hopefully the trend will continue!

  • Bill McNye

    I am not going to say that these drinks are good for anyone. They clearly are not. (here it come) However, I have yet to see any eveident that these drinks are causing more people to go to the hospital. If they are, ban them. If not, it is a waste of time and money to regulate and give a false sense of security. Oh well, I guess it is back to smokeing and drinking or vodka Red Bull for these guys.

    My other issue is broader: society wants this goup of adults to act responsibly, but keeps treating them like children. Look at the public outrage when a college student ends up dead after a night on binge drinking. Yet how many older adults die each day from alcohol? It is time for society to stop acting like over protective helicopter parents and treat this age group with respect. That means letting them make mistakes and learning from them.

  • bill

    Nanny state. Rum & Coke, RB & Vodka. There’s still ways to mix alcohol w/caffeine AND both of those options taste better.

  • Sarah

    This ban will not stop people from mixing energy drinks mixed with alcohol, now they will just go back to (and some never stopped) mixing it themselves. This is a useless waste of taxpayers’ time and money. I fully agree with Bill that society needs to drop the helicopter parenting.

  • Madison

    Bill McNye -look up fourloko on the Seattle Times website; there was a party where authorities thought kids had been drugged but in turn it was all four loko. That being said… it’s called natural selection and as long as real cases are taking priority over these four loko and alcohol poisoning cases in emergency rooms, I see no reason to ban it. This is coming from someone that turns twenty one in two weeks and kind likes watching the more stupid of my classmates off themselves and with more energy.

    Nanny State!

  • Jen B

    It is not illegal to sell or purchase, only manufacture. My brother in New York is stockpiling so he can have a huge “Four Loko” party in February. I find this amusing.

  • Brooke

    I think the restriction is warrented. This product is NOT like Irish coffee or rum and Coke. Take mixing up a rum and Coke for example – the more alcohol you add to the drink, the more caffine you sacrifice. You can never mix a drink to have the same alcohol AND caffine content as these products. Same with Red Bull & vodka. 12.5% alcohol is VERY high for a beverage to be served from a 23 oz can as a single serving. This is akin to downing a whole bottle of wine and having plenty of energy (thanks caffine!) to down another. While there are some beers that have similar alcohol content, anyone who has consumed these will tell you they are not meant to be downed quickly, nor would you be able to due to the heaviness of the drink.

    I do not disagree that there are larger issues here with the safety of alcohol in general, but I think this specific product (and those like it) has proven itself unsafe many times over and should be reformulated and/or pulled from the market.