There is a drink college students call “Blackout in a Can” that is supposed to kill two birds with one stone. That nickname is very catchy. The real name is Four Loko.
If I hadn’t heard anything about this drink and saw it for the first time on the store shelf, I would probably think that it’s a crazy idea once I read the ingredients on the can. There have been several college students in this country that have been sickened by the alcohol and caffeine in the drink.
The Food and Drug Administration has recently banned the drink from even being on some college campuses, with the most notable campus being Central Washington University because that’s where most people got sick.
I already figured that the FDA would publicly say the drink is a bad idea. There has to be a reason why all those people got sick. It’s not that hard to narrow down the culprit of all those college students’ illnesses when those who got sick had one thing in common: they drank this common beverage.
Police initially thought the college students had been sickened via somebody slipping date-rape drugs into their drinks. I understand why they thought that, because nearly all of the sickened students were women.
The makers of Four Loko surely didn’t like the fact that their drink was being singled out. I don’t blame them. They are losing money by their drink being banned from even being on some campuses.
I think there should be more consumer education. I don’t know how many of those drinks each student had while at their respective party. I do know that if each student had several of them, then the company shouldn’t be held liable, because too much caffeine and especially alcohol is never good.
In 2009, the FDA publicly said it didn’t think it was a good idea for companies to mix alcohol and caffeine in a single product. It also didn’t think it was a good idea to drink both around the same time, either.
It had been investigating the safety and legality of mixing two counteractive substances together. The FDA can already ban dangerous food additives, which alcohol and caffeine mixed together would presumably be.
I don’t have a problem with Four Loko being marketing at college students. There are numerous products that are not aimed at college students, but if they want the products bad enough, they will find a way to get them.
That’s just a reality in the world in which we live. Students just need to be warned about the ingredients in the drink and the effects it can have if you only drink one can.
Also, they need to be warned what can happen if they drink multiple cans. The effects of the two are totally opposite things. The ingredients have made students feel like they were both wrecked and really awake. I don’t know why anybody would want to be both drunk and awake at the same time.
Normally, people who drink alcohol want to drink and feel on top of the world. Those who drink caffeinated beverages want to stay awake so they can be alert for a test, class or work.
If the makers warn consumers, then it will cut down on at least some of the criticism on their controversial drink being aimed at young people.
The popularity of this drink can be partly blamed on the fact that it is cheap, so that makes it easy for students to get it. Students can basically get drunk for a small amount of money.
There have been studies done that compare students who mixed alcohol and caffeinated beverages with those who only drank one or the other.
Students have shown that those who mixed the two beverages were much more likely to be in risky situations, like being with a drunken driver and simply getting injured.
Many students who want alcohol and caffeine won’t mix the two because they know the dangers of doing so. Some have found the Four Loko drink to be something they can’t even stomach.
You should be very careful of what you drink. It might give you short-term pleasure but leave you with long-term regrets.
Christopher Webb is a junior majoring in business administration. He can be contacted at [email protected].