1. There is Claim that when you have Caffeine in alcoholic drinks that it makes it so you can't tell how drunk you are... Not sure if that is true or not but since it pumps you up it makes sense...
2. If 1 is true then can it be dangerous... Yes but anything can be. Smoke enough your lungs die. To Much alcohol you die. To Much Cocaine heart attack. This is true of most things. If you think about it makes sense. High amount of alcohol in a big can and many of these drinks are very sweet so you can see how it would be easy to over do it, in fact I did with Joose
But it is very tasty...3. But see Danger is the point.. If you drink something that constricts blood Vessels and then speeds up your heart or body or gets you moving it could be dangerous...
4. The Point is when something is Dangerous people want to ban it. Do you ban cars? No. How about ATVs and other dangerous things ? Um no. Here is an Idea how about some Education and teaching people how to be safe.....
5. Binge drinking is a real thing and people drink to get really messed up or chugging beers. This has happened for a long time and will continue to happen. Yes young people die from it all the time and it won't stop anytime soon. I think that the people who got really sick off of four Loko did so cause they where into this activity.. It isn't four loko that caused it, it is the activity the stuff is around 10 or 12% alcohol....
6. Yes when sparks came out and also Tilt They where marketed as energy drinks with alcohol. Now some have said that this confuses people that people think they are energy drinks. I do think that some people might think that... But they are only sold with other alcohol so you should know they aren't a regular energy drink so I don't buy that.
So I guess the way I Bottom Line this is that I think they should be legal and Just have a warning on them. Now I know that hurts the marketing but you still have most of the can or maybe you could make them have a cling sign that attaches to the cooler doors that is a warning. If a store doesn't have one then the their is some kind of fine from the FDA.. Everyone shouldn't be hurt by some people who can't control there alcohol intake... They should be Drink at your own risk.....
Now I do have one other issue about this entire thing. If this combo is so Dangerous then why aren't they going to go after the bars and restaurants where you can order right off the menu a Vodka and Redbull or a Vodka and Diablo Energy drink (very tasty at club Diablo). See there is this double standard that pisses me off. They won't go and make that mix illegal in a bar (how would you enforce it since they don't only sell alcohol you can't make them not sell energy drinks). But that isn't why. I think they are in bed with the bars. I almost wonder if the bars are tied in to this somehow. Yes I'm glad they aren't going this far cause I like that mix, I also like Jagger and redbull as a mix Yummy... But it is still a double standard. Why is it that a few people have to go and ruin it for everyone else... This isn't just in here in so many other things it just pisses me off.
On a side note Today I did buy two flavors of Four Loko one is grape and I forget what the other one is they have a bunch of flavors and I got a huge thing of a purple can of tilt. Maybe I'll buy more types just to try them , cause I won't be able to have them much longer ARgh..................
I remember there being Controversy over a Drink I liked called sparks it was pretty good. It tastes like an energy Drink but has alcohol in it... The Wiki Page
(drink)History
Created in 2002 by San Francisco-based beverage marketing firm McKenzie River Corporation, early marketing relied on word of mouth primed by giving away large quantities of the beverage.[2].Between 2003 and 2005, it had a 107% compound annual growth rate.[3]
On August 14, 2006, Miller Brewing Company announced it had completed the purchase of Sparks from McKenzie River Corp. for $215 million cash.[4] Miller had been producing Sparks prior to this purchase.[5] It is currently producing it under the Steel Brewing Company label of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In September 2008, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group, sued MillerCoors, claiming that its Sparks alcoholic beverages that include caffeine are a health hazard.[6] Three months later, at the behest of San Francisco and 13 states, distributor MillerCoors LLC announced it would remove the caffeine from its Sparks line of energy drinks, and would change its marketing campaign.[7] "We're doing it to protect the public health of our young people and to reform business practices," said S.F. City Attorney Dennis Herrera.[8]
Maybe it is Just Me but I think this is all Schumer's Idea to shut these people down
Four Loko Drinks to be Prohibited by Government
Posted November 18, 2010 4:32 PM
Four Loko is the target of new legislative efforts aimed at protecting Americans from the dangerous mix of caffeine and alcohol. The federal government will make products such as Four Loko, Joose and other caffeinated alcoholic beverages prohibited for U.S. sale, a senator says.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration will rule caffeine is an unsafe food additive to alcoholic beverages and therefore prohibited for sale in the United States.
Last month, nine college students from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash., fell ill at a house party in Roslyn, Wash. The students were hospitalized and one student almost died. "Let these rulings serve as a warning to anyone who tried to peddle dangerous and toxic brews to our children. Do it and we will shut you down," Schumer said in a statement Tuesday.
"This ruling should be the nail in the coffin of these dangerous and toxic drinks. Parents should be able to rest a little easier knowing that soon their children won't have access to this deadly brew." Drinks such as Four Loko and Joose have as much as two to three coffee cups' worth of caffeine and two to three cans of beer per container, a combination that can be extremely hazardous for teens as well as adults, Schumer said.
Schumer said he has been applying intense pressure to have these drinks banned because of serious risks to the health and safety of consumers.
Read more:
So Never read this site before but they have an article with a video of part of a Vigil For Four Loko..
In the wake of its inevitable ban, Four Loko, the drink that nobody really drinks but everyone loves to memorialize, continues to inspire more feats of absurdity. On Monday filmmaker Ryan Jones drank the stuff to scientifically guage how potent it is. On Wednesday Assemblyman Felix Ortiz imbibed three in a nearby hospital to monitor its effects.
Last night fans of the "blackout in a can" gathered in Union Square for a Four Loko vigil. Fans of the drink sang songs of support, lit candles and told stories about their best (or worst) Four Loko experiences. Even the 8-bit techno band Anamanaguchi came to show their support.
The Village Voice was there to report this moving and somber event:
Soon, the crowd began to light candles and, in turn, use those candles to light their cigarettes. A few mourners stepped forward to share their Four Loko stories. "Every time I drank a Four Loko, something terrible happened," one said, then, when the applause settled, concluded, "And each time, I grew from it." A less enthusiastic round of applause followed.
I had another great example of how we do things backwards but from when I thought of it to when I went on line I lost it someplace...
I did want to add that I did buy 2 of the 4 lokos and will try one on Sunday during football when I have a long time to drink one....
I see your point as well. It definitely feels like the scenario where the events on Sept 11 messed up the whole flying-security-related hassle for everyone on the PLANET.
(e:James) makes a good point that I didn't think about.
(e:tinypliny) the two drugs together is a good point. The most abused drug in this country is Cafine (granted it is also the least harmful on its own) or maybe that is most used. Think about all the coffee drinkers who use it to wake up and then physicaly and mentally they can't wake up until they have coffee...
I think that this is a case of the way people in this country do things backwards. See we like to fight the effects of the sickness not the sickness its self (um war on drugs a to complex example to give here). So this causes people to get sick and almost and Die. Here is an idea lets teach people how not to binge drink and how to not over do things. I know from work that often times there is some thing that doesn't hurt anyone and is a great thing but there is all ways some ass hole who abuses the privalage or doesn't think it is fair cause it doesn't favor them and they go and mess it up for everyone. So companies put policies into place that wind up punishing everyone instead of getting rid of the bad people who abuse stuff looks like we lose out because some college kids go overboard ARGH.....
I don't think the ethical thing to do is to ban it, as there are a great many things that are unsafe in excess (like steak. Yum, steak). It is ethical to put a warning on there that will be ignored.
But, I also think there are far more important things for the FDA to work on. Like improving food safety inspections. There is not an expectation that you will get salmonella and die when you purchase scallions. There is an expectation that shit is going to get fucked up when you purchase an alcoholic drink.
If there is scientific evidence that the mixture is potentiating the lethal effect of alcohol (and I haven't looked this up) then I think banning it is the ethically correct way to go.
(e:Paul), I think it is one thing when people voluntarily mix two psychoactive substances together themselves and entirely another thing when the two reacting substances are being sold together by default requiring no voluntary cognizance of the fact that two potent drugs are in the mix - not just one. I know it sounds rather stupid because by this logic, cigarettes - that contain more than 4500 inter-reacting chemicals (at last count) are still legal... but then I am of the opinion that cigarettes need to be banned.
It seems ridiculous to ban it if they are still going to sell alcohol and red bull right next to each other. If its nit premises, people will just mix it themselves.