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Harvard students warned to be smart about Four Loko
By adamg on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 6:47am
Harvard health officials are urging students to stay away from "blackout in a can;" turns out some Harvard students required medical attention after drinking the stuff, the Crimson reports:
The advisory issued by Harvard followed a similar announcement made to students at Boston College last week, prompting one Harvard College administrator to "wonder if we're behind the curve in not being more vocal against its negative effects," according to an e-mail thread forwarded to a House list.
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Comments
Bad News
This stuff is dangerous and there does need to be some regulation here ... seven servings of alcohol in a single-serve package?
Of course, effective regulation won't focus on a single product - it should be a matter of alcohol servings in a single container intended for consumption at a single sitting, and, perhaps, a price floor.
On the other hand, I am amused by the news stories I've seen and the usual gang of reactionary neoprohibitionists they get to comment on this sort of thing. Define "marketed to underage drinkers" without fingering a Bud or Miller ad. Define "excess alcohol content" without considering nip bottles of spirits. "We don't like this because SCARY stereotype" isn't a basis of effective regulation.
7? More like 4
A 23.5 oz can of 12% ABV booze downed in 6 minutes by a 200 lb person will put them at 0.10 BAC. Enough to be over the legal limit to drive.
4 2-oz shots of 40% vodka downed in the same time by the same person will put them at 0.11 BAC. So, this drink is basically the same as about 4 shots of liquor with 15-16 oz of filler.
That's hardly something to write home about. You could also go buy two bottles of Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (18% ABV) and drink them over a half hour and end up with a higher BAC.
The problem is the binge drinking. Caffeine seems to be a method for helping people binge drink while avoiding the early warning signs of being drunk because of the anti-lethargy and increased focus it gives. In the end, people still need to be aware of how much alcohol they're drinking and how fast they're doing it. At 12% ABV, there are stronger beers and liquors that could get you just as drunk just as fast as this stuff. There's nothing magical about Four beverages (and I'm betting they're loving all of the free publicity).
The focus should be on getting people in touch with the reality of alcohol consumption in the body so they can properly pace themselves instead of slamming 60 oz of booze as fast as possible...and then passing out or dying.
Love Stouts but...
I can't imagine gulping down two bottles of an 18% stout in just a half an hour. I'd probably drink the Four Loko instead.
This whole fracas reminds me of "Cisco" (sp?) brand beverages that were demonized when I was in high school. I'm sure like that stuff, this attention will all fade away (until another shady drink will get pounced on by the media again.)
Stout power
You could still peak over 0.10 on the two stouts even if you took over an hour to drink them both.
Also, I recall the outrage around Zima killing our children because it tasted like soda but had the alcohol of a beer in it. Fortunately, the stupidity around that died before the drink itself did.
Varies by state
The amount of alcohol varies by state - it can be as many as six servings in some states (hence the issues in Washington). By contrast, a 40 ounce beer is a little over three servings.
Consider also that the "standard drinking person" isn't 200 lbs, but 150. A product that gets a 150 lb person to 0.13 or 0.14 is six to seven servings of alcohol using standard definitions.
The point is that any regulation of this crazy shit would have to be aimed at the real issue - it is a single serving container specifically designed for binging. Banning the specific product won't do a thing, but limiting the alcohol content of single cans of might, as would putting in a price floor that wouldn't affect most spirits and lambics and Quebecois ales in tall bottles and the wonderful Arrogant Bastard.
In my day it was Wine Coolers like Bartyls and James that were the Sweet Alcohol that Kills Little Kids! OMG!
Moral panic
I do kind of wonder about the moral panic that seems to have sprung up around this stuff as of Tuesday or so (when every Boston paper and a handful of west coast dailies ran weirdly prohibitionist stories about what a horrible thing Four Loko is and how we should ban it to spare the poor children). Part of me thinks that anything that can incite this kind of moral panic and general indignation by bored Midwestern housewives must be doing something right, so I bought a can of it for a Halloween party on Saturday. It's... not good. Like a giant can of carbonated Kool-Aid that makes you want to go do calisthenics on the roof. But my 21-year-old self probably would have liked it, and I seem to have survived the night without blacking out on the front lawn.
Drinking 2 or 3 of these in a night would be bad news, but I don't think it's any more dangerous than other brands of hobo wine they sell in every liquor store in Brighton. Maybe there's something psychological about the fact that it's sold in a container that can't be resealed.
Resealing
Pretty hard to "reseal" any sort of beer can or bottle.
So fancy
So you're too fancy for a screw-top forty-ouncer of Mickey's?
(Okay, yeah, me too, but I wasn't always).
Michelob comes in 40s?
Never knew that.
There's slumming it
And then there's slumming it.
No SwirlyGrrl,
It isn't and there doesn't need to be more overblown outrage and regulations on it.
Every single instance of this becoming a problem is also followed by the small type stating "They were also drinking hard alcohol".
So in other words, they drank some four loco's, or other caffeinated beverage, then pounded vodka or another hard liquor and passed out. So sure, it must be the four loco's fault?
Give me a break. Why isn't anyone clamoring for "regulating" Rubinoff?
The fact is, the beverage is already taxed and regulated as an alcoholic drink as is. People getting the vapors over this need to step back and stop looking for scapegoats and faux fixes. Kids aren't getting blackout drunk on, or because of these drinks.
its for breakfast
ive decided to replace my cereal in the mornings with a Four Loko.
It's a fad
And you can't regulate fads.
It has nothing to do with alcohol content. A pint of hard liquor contains way more alcohol than this stuff, and nobody is asking to have that regulated.
This is a fad, it will pass.
fad that will pass
This to shall pass? Tell that to a kid who ends up with an OUI or a female that is sexually assaulted or someone who blacks out then suffers XY or Z. Too many kids will take too long to mature and in the mean time they will drink this crap. Don't let the BIG alcohol industry target minors.
It is estimated that overall underage drinkers consume 15.3% of all alcohol sold in MA, totaling $665 million in sales. (PIRE)
.
the problem is not the four lokos, its moron kids chugging 1-3 cans of the stuff as fast as they can to show off.
and as Ron White says, "you can't fix stupid".
Fine, address the real problem then
The real problem is not Four Loko - the real problem is drinking to excess. Address that issue and then you might accomplish something.
Banning or regulating Four Loko is like Concord banning bottled water - it doesn't solve anything.
The moral here is learn how
The moral here is learn how to friggin' drink. I used to love these things because they look like an energy drink so I could openly sip one on my hour long T ride home. Yes, they are potent (the percentage is clearly marked on the can). Yes, they taste fairly horrible. So maybe these college kids are just unable to read or make anything resembling intelligent decisions? I'm not sure. I skipped college and went right on to making money...