Sunday, November 14, 2010

Some Uncommon Common Sense


The New York State liquor distributors have refused to sell an alcoholic beverage which apparently targets young people. One can of Four Loco has the same alcohol content as four cans of beer.

New York's largest beer distributors agreed late last night to stop selling caffeinated alcoholic drinks that come in tall, colorful cans and to purge their inventory of the products, the state's Liquor Authority said.

Details of an undercover sting intended to determine whether the fruit-flavored concoctions were being sold to minors were also expected to be announced today.

New York's liquor regulators said that they had determined there was insufficient evidence to show that the products were safe.

[...]The popular drinks, which can have up to four times as much alcohol as four beers and have cartoon-worthy names like Four Loko, have been banned in Washington, Michigan, Utah and Oklahoma.

College students have been hospitalized after drinking the beverages, including in New Jersey, where one school banned them on campus.

The company that makes Four Loko, Phusion Project, didn't respond to an e-mail Saturday requesting comment about the deal. On its website, the company said it doesn't "agree with the notion that mixing caffeine and alcohol is inherently unsafe."



Nationwide statistics indicate that college drinking carries a steep price...

•Death: 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes (Hingson et al., 2009).

•Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009).

•Assault: 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (Hingson et al., 2009).


•Sexual Abuse: 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al., 2009).

4 comments:

Kid said...

Alcohol is much more dangerous than hard drugs.

Anonymous said...

Here's a 2-step program:

1. Remove the product.
2. Insert a moral code.

sig94 said...

Kid - alcohol is always a gateway drug. Being strung out on booze is bad enough. Kids born to an alcoholic mother start life with three strikes against them. So much of my career dealt with alcohol abuse.

sig94 said...

Perhaps mooselimbs have that part right - no booze. Prohibition was not all that bad a thing. Look at what we have to deal with now because of alcohol abuse - welfare, prisons, rehab, blasted/wasted lives, ruined kids. Just inbelieveable heartache.