Recent legislation bans sale of Four Loko

The bright purple, green and yellow dye of the jellybeans rubbed off in junior Kelly Monroe’s* slightly moist right hand as she bounced around the packed basement, feeding a jellybean to each person there. Even though she knew maybe five of the 20 people there, she felt invincible. A slightly stale blue raspberry taste coated her mouth. The bass pounded through her ears and made her even more aware of her restlessness. She wanted to go sleep, wanted to go pass out in a secluded corner of the basement, but she couldn’t stop. Once the jellybeans ran out, she wiped her hand on her sequined tank top.

In her right was a purple and silver can of Four Loko.

Monroe’s experience shows the effects of Four Loko, an alcoholic energy drink. The increasing usage of Four Loko has caught the attention of everyone from concerned parents to FDA officials. The drink comes in ten different flavors ranging from cranberry lemonade to blue raspberry and contains the equivalent of five shots of vodka and the caffeine of two Starbucks lattes. The FDA has now issued warnings to four different makers of these alcohol-laced energy drinks and hopes to have all Four Loko products off the shelves by the end of December 2010.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, Four Loko has been gaining popularity, especially around college and high school campuses. In the past few months, concern has rose among doctors, law enforcement and parents about the drink’s appeal to the younger generation.

“A lot of people feel like it’s marketed to young people,” St. Luke’s Hospital  ER doctor Chris Bowser said. “The trendy packaging combined with statements like ‘herbal supplements’ makes a nasty combination.”

The colorful packaging is only one factor that contributes to the popularity of the drink. A cult has grown around it, featuring YouTube videos of college students chugging multiple cans of the drink. According to Monroe, the first place she heard of the drink was at a party over the summer. Others are warned about it by parents or are aware of it from horror stories about the dangers of it.

“My mom actually told me about [Four Loko] for the first time. She gave me this YouTube link to go to about all these kids that had died from drinking too much of it,” junior Jake Stern* said. “But I drank it anyways just ‘cause it sounded new and interesting. I probably drink it about twice a month.”

Four Loko is accessible to kids in its price and convenience. Only costing around $4 per can, it costs less and less money to get wasted. According to Monroe, the oversized, 23.5 oz. cans are so high in alcohol content that one or two of them can last her all night. In reality, it only takes a few Four Lokos to cause severe motor control impairment and even unconsciousness because of their high alcohol content and large can, according to Bowser.

But the real reason they drink it, according to Stern and Monroe, is that it simply tastes good—and is easy to get drunk off of. According to Monroe, it’s just easier and a lot tastier than trying to mix a drink for yourself.

“It’s pretty cheap, and you can get really, you know… crunk from it,” Stern said. “It has good flavors but an interesting aftertaste, kind of like Red Bull.”

This kind of “crazy drunk” is different from that of any other drink, according to Bowser. Instead of the caffeine offsetting the effects of alcohol and essentially neutralizing it, the mix produces an agitated state of intoxication. This effect is magnified in Four Loko as to compared to other alcoholic that contain caffeine, such as Irish coffee.

“Figuratively, you could say that you could make similar drinks to this, and they may be just as harmful as Four Loko,” Bowser said. “But the issue in question is the fact that it all comes in a slick package.”

According to a CNN report, caffeine also wears off much quicker than alcohol does. Therefore, users crash much earlier in the night and suffer an increased likelihood of blacking out. Many attribute the side affects of this drink as a matter of bad judgment on the user’s part.

“I don’t think it’s really an issue,” Stern said. “But people drink it in excess and so they have problems with it.”

The nature of the drink as something that is produced nationally makes it appear that the combination of caffeine and alcohol isn’t something to be concerned with.

“I had heard that you’re not supposed to mix Red Bull and vodka,” Monroe said. “But seemed safer somehow to drink Four Loko because it was already made.”

But in the aftermath of the hospitalization of nine Central Washington University students, Four Loko and other drinks such as Joose  were brought under scrutiny.

To the dismay of fans of the “blackout in a can”, the FDA issued a letter to the makers of Four Loko, Phusion Projects, advising them to stop the production of their drink. According to the FDA, the key danger and a reason for pulling Four Loko off the shelves is the fact that the caffeine may mask the effects of the alcohol, so people consume more alcohol than they normally would.

In anticipation of the FDA’s warning, Phusion Projects has announced that they are going to remove the caffeine, as well as taurine and guarine (chemicals found in Red Bull and other energy drinks) from Four Loko. This would make Four Loko like any other flavored alcoholic drink on the market– except for its high alcohol content. By 2011, the switch should be complete and as of Nov. 22, the drink is outlawed in Kansas. According to the CNN, there has been a noticeable uptick in Four Loko sales as some partiers rush to stock up on the drink.

According to a recent CNN article, this switch from a highly alcoholic energy drink to, essentially, spiked, carbonated Kool-Aid is frowned on by some and looked at as an unnecessary government attempt to regulate consumer intake. But still others see the move to ban Four Loko as a necessity for the safety of both minors and of-age drinkers.

“Most of us in my profession feel it’s a good thing that they’re pulling these off the shelves,” Bowser said. “The danger is everything: the packaging, the alcohol content, the caffeine, the culture around it.”