Four Loko

Four Loko The alcoholic beverage formally known as Four Loko began in an Ohio college dorm room as an experiment in 2006. Recently the drink has been banned in most states in America due to deaths and injuries. These tragedies could have easily been prevented if people were smarter and more responsible about their drinking. Four Lokos have been known for their high amount of alcohol and even higher amount of energy drink. Even though Four Lokos may be the best and most fun drunk ever, it is easy to understand why they would be banned. The drink has a lot of unhealthy things in it, people have died from it, and just like any alcohol product it causes people to do violent and crazy things. The drink is called Four Loko for a reason, it has four main ingredients: alcohol, caffeine, taurine, and guarana. It also contains carbonated water, sugar, and natural and artificial flavoring. The mixture of caffeine and alcohol is one of the worst and deadliest mixtures around, and yet teenagers love to drink the beverage. The average Four Loko has 6% or 12% alcohol per volume, depending on state regulations, in 23.5 oz cans. The beverage is the equivalent to 4 beers and 3 cups of coffee mixed together. There are eight different flavors of Four Loko, including: grape, fruit punch, orange blend, watermelon, blue raspberry, lemon lime, lemonade, and cranberry lemonade. A poll was taken at a University and it showed that most of its’ students like the cranberry lemonade and the blue raspberry flavors the best because they “taste the least like beer”. The tragic deaths from Four Lokos have not only been from car wrecks and violent behaviors, but by the consumer drinking too many cans. The combination of alcohol and caffeine is one of the most unsafe combinations to be consumed, but the company seems to think otherwise. In an article about a teen in Texas dying from the drink, the company stated, “If it [Four Lokos] were unsafe, popular drinks like rum and colas or Irish coffees that have been consumed safely and responsibly for years would face the same scrutiny that our products have recently faced.” Therefore, even though people have been only recently dying or injuring themselves from their products, they seem to believe that they are safe and okay to drink. Obviously the drink is very unhealthy and the FDA continues to prove it, but the company would love to keep their drink around so they will say whatever just to keep it legal to drink. Just like any alcoholic beverage, Four Loko causes people to do crazy or even loco things when consumed. Since there is a lot of caffeine added to this drink people do especially wild things or even tend to black out much easier. There have been many cases of people getting in bad car accidents due to Four Lokos, along with other alcohol related car accidents. But, there are many more tragedies due to the Four Loko mixture than just mixing some coffee with a cup of alcohol, because it is more controlled when you mix them for yourself. With the 100 proof alcohol in Four Loko along with the equivalent of 3 cups of coffee it is quite understandable why the FDA would ban the drink in some states in America. But if people would be more responsible while drinking them maybe they could stay around for a while longer. Since there are nasty ingredients, people dying and getting injured, and the wild things people do while drinking the beverage maybe the drink should be banned everywhere in the United States instead of just a couple places. It’s almost as if the states where tragedies are happening are where they are being banned, maybe the other states are waiting for something tragic to happen before they ban them.