Posted on 01/05/2011 5:57:44 AM PST by Kaslin
Sometimes I drink Scotch and then, to wake myself up, I drink coffee. So what? Many people consume mixtures of caffeine and alcohol in drinks like rum and Coke. Again, so what?
But recently some college kids started drinking pre-mixed combos of alcohol and caffeine with names like Four Loko and Moonshot '69. Moonshot '69 is a pilsner beer with less than a coffee cup's worth of caffeine. Until recently, Four Loko contained 12 percent alcohol -- about the same as wine -- and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. A few students, after drinking Four Loko, landed in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. Naturally, hysterical news reports followed.
A new bogeyman was born: caffeinated alcoholic beverages.
As night follows day, the Food and Drug Administration in November ordered beverage companies to lose the caffeine or shut down. The FDA called caffeine an "unsafe food additive." Phusion Products says it will now produce only noncaffeinated Four Loko. Moonshot '69 is off the market for now, which is bad news for Rhonda Kallman, who founded the company that makes it, New Century Brewing.
"There is nothing new about adults combining caffeine and alcohol," Kallman writes on her company website. "Who hasn't enjoyed a rum and Coke, Irish coffee, Kahlua or espresso martini? ... Moonshot '69 is a beer for beer drinkers that has been enjoyed by craft-beer lovers since 2004."
Her online petition states: "We the undersigned support the right of responsible adults to choose the beer of their choice. We support Moonshot69 and the rights of craft brewers across the country to produce new and innovative offerings for the beer drinking public. ... We call on the federal government to adhere to responsible regulation of alcoholic beverages that allows adults to enjoy the beer of their choice."
Unfortunately, Kallman tries to separate her product from higher-alcohol FDA targets, but Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine argues that the FDA has no business limiting the sale of any of the alcohol/caffeine combos.
"This has been going on for as long as there have been colleges and universities," he said. "You can go back to the Middle Ages, and booze and students go together like, I guess, beer and caffeine.
Aren't some drinks more dangerous than others?
"I don't think so. But when we raised the drinking age to 21 ... we told young people ... you can vote, you can enter a contract, you can go to war, you can die for your country, but if you want to drink and you're going to college, you better go off campus into a basement apartment somewhere and chug like there's no tomorrow because you don't know when you're going to be able to get drunk again."
He points out that by forbidding pre-21 adults from drinking openly around their elders, we deny them the chance to be exposed to responsible drinking.
About the ban on caffeinated alcoholic drinks, he added, "You can't minimize the overreach by the FDA."
I asked the FDA why Moonshot '69 is included on the ban list when it's not marketed to pre-21 adults and it contains less alcohol than more sugary drinks. They replied that Moonshot was referred to the agency by state attorneys general concerned about alcohol and caffeine. The FDA asked New Century Brewing for data indicating the legal standard for safety had been met, but no data was provided.
Kallman points out that the FDA "didn't fully research it either. So they put the onus on the small entrepreneur to have a scientist. But at the end of the day, it's 5 percent alcohol by volume and less than a half a cup of coffee of natural caffeine. Where will they stop?"
Never. Government never stops.
Gillespie added, "What we should be having instead of bans (of) beverages that people like and ... consume responsibly is ... a national conversation about how, after a couple of hundred years of the American experiment, we can get past the prohibitionist mindset and teach people how to drink responsibly like they do in France, Italy, Spain and many other parts of the world."
There will be no general social responsibility until government frees its slaves. Someone needs to initiate an emancipation proclamaton.
Drinking should be Social.
When someone drinks to get drunk, they are irresponsible and stupid.
Flame on.
Tobacco - salt - transfats...
The Prohibitionist Impulse is alive and well in Amerika...
If they do it in the privacy of their home, it may be stupid, but not irresponsible. Hence, it's none of the government's business.
When someone drinks coffee or tea they drink it to experience the effects of caffeine. When someone drinks alcohol they drink it to experience the effects of alcohol. When someone smokes weed, they smoke it to experience the effects of THC. When someone smokes a cigarette they do it to experience the effects of nicotine.
When someone wants to be Social... they go hang with other people. To use being social as an excuse to experience caffeine, alcohol, THC or nicotine is intellectually dishonest and unnecessary to be social.
“Four Loko contained 12 percent alcohol — about the same as wine — and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. A few students, after drinking Four Loko, landed in the hospital with alcohol poisoning”
12 percent? Is that even possible? Wouldn’t your liver & kidneys & bladder pass it before you could consume two or three cases? I understand at 80 (40%), 90 (45%), 151 (75.5%), & 190 (95%) proof, but 12 percent? (24 proof)
That’d be like trying to drink a case of beer as fast as possible. Heck, after I tap the main line the first time, I might as well stand there, because it’s like “time to go” every three minutes after that.
personally, i think this new round of flavoured whiskeys is more dangerous than energy beers. i’ll occasionally sell 3-4 jager bombs in a night, but lately i’ve been going through 2-3 bottles of fireball a night, and the red stag and evan williams cherry aren’t far behind.
It’s pretty obvious to me that they already were highly loaded, drank the four loko, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
It’s also obvious, though, that the quoted sentence was meant to imply that the four loko was solely responsible for the alcohol poisoning.
“When someone drinks to get drunk, they are irresponsible and stupid”
“But recently some college kids”
No flame. But pretty much self explanatory.
The only way government nannies are going to get my espresso, cognac and cigar is by prying them from my cold dead hands.
First they came for tobacco...I did not smoke, therefore, I was not concerned.
Then they attacked salt, I did not use salt, and therefore, I was not concerned.
Then they attacked transfats, I did not consume transfats and I was not concerned.
Then, they attacked something I do use and consume — and there was nobody left to be concerned.
Don't think for a second they'll have any problems with that arrangement.
And if they drink at home?? They aren't allowed to be irresponsible and stupid in their own domiciles.
Here's a clue. "Prohibition" was repealed. Re-instating it by bureaucratic fiat is wrong.
beers run 3-5%, and yes, you can get alcohol poisoning on beer.. it just takes a little dedication.
another thing they’re not mentioning is that alot of these kids are very likely using the 4 lokos as chasers while chugging some higher proofage liquor.
I’ve been told Prohibition doesn’t work. It’s a bad thing.
A symptom of a repressive government that only seeks to control the people. We should eliminate all forms of Prohibitionism.
With that in mind, I’d like to lower the legal drinking age. To 0.
I’d like to also end Prohibition to other mind altering substances. Marijuana? Legalize it. Same with cocaine, heroin, meth, you name it - legalize it.
Because - after all - Prohibition is bad.
Besides... Think of all the wonderful taxes we could collect if we ended all thse facist forms of Prohibition.
You will not getting flamed from me, because you are exactly right. When someone drinks to get drunk, they are irresponsible and stupid
The FDA cannot be reformed.
It needs to be abolished and replaced by private enterprise.
There are those government nannies who think they can get college students to forgo alcohol and other intoxicating beverages and switch to fruit smoothies. Sure, that will happen. (smirk)
Drinking should be done because you like the taste.
Prohibitionists are nannies as much as Mother Pelosi and Rep. Upton who pushed for banning the light bulb.
MADD has been at the forefront of eroding our rights while driving/traveling. For instance, “checkpoints” where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent and detained but not really “detained”.
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