Wakey Wakey Rise and Shine It on Again Off Again

Plain they're banning booze again in the USA. Well, some booze:

A few weeks ago in New York a group of college students gathered at a vigil. They sang songs, and held candles as they mourned the passing of a friend. The scene tin can be seen on YouTube. What makes it slightly surreal is that the gathered oversupply is lamenting the demise of an alcoholic drink, Four Loko. From Mon, Four Loko will no longer exist in its original incarnation – as a mix of alcohol and caffeine in a can – on the orders of the Us Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

(That's 'Monday' as in the 13th of Dec. Lamentable, I've been busy.)

Yeah, it's those evil caffeinated alco-pops. Add caffeine to an alcoholic drink and anything could happen:

ane 23.5oz (694ml) can contains equally much caffeine equally a tall Starbucks coffee. Information technology is a combination those who drink it say tastes groovy and makes you feel good. But others describe information technology equally a "blackout in a tin can", and arraign it for landing a number of students in hospital.

"Blackout in a tin" – whew! Simply isn't this just teenage legend? (My son (fifteen) is convinced that vodka and Red Balderdash volition impale you. He didn't go that from me, but I'm not in a hurry to enlighten him.)

Evidently not: information technology seems there are genuine health concerns.

Concluding calendar month, the US Nutrient and Drug Administration called on the top iv manufacturers to take them out of circulation by 13 December. Dr Joshua Chiliad Sharfstein, the FDA'due south primary deputy commissioner, said evidence suggested that the mix of caffeine and alcohol posed a "public health concern". Iv Loko will proceed to be on sale, but now without the caffeine.

The FDA'southward action came subsequently some highly publicised scandals, in which the drinks were reported to have caused serious illness, including 1 at Ramapo College in New Bailiwick of jersey. "My friend had [a] picayune under three cans in 1 hr," explains a student at the higher, James Kulinski. "He didn't know what he was doing. He was a mess – he had no motor skills and no ability to communicate."

That'due south strong stuff, that caffeine. I mean, there can't exist that much booze

The fruit-flavoured energy drink contains 12% alcohol, making information technology about 3 times equally potent equally a regular beer

well, OK, simply there tin't be that much alcohol in i can

1 23.5oz (694ml) tin can

and information technology's not as if a strong malt liquor is going to appeal to younger people

Iv Loko is bachelor in eight flavors: Uva Berry (Grape), Fruit Dial, Orange Blend, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, Lemon Lime, Lemonade, and Cranberry Lemonade.

or inexperienced drinkers…

James has tried Four Loko and Joose and isn't a huge fan. He says most people who drank it on campus were "inexperienced drinkers" who saw it, at around $1.fifty, every bit an inexpensive fashion to get drunk.

So, to recap, the jokers behind 4 Loko were selling a fruit-flavoured drink containing almost as much alcohol in one can equally a litre of Special Mash, at $i.50 a throw, in a land where under-21s can't purchase alcohol. What was that, James?

"My friend had [a] little under 3 cans in one hour … He didn't know what he was doing. He was a mess – he had no motor skills and no ability to communicate."

James, your friend drank the equivalent of eight pints of Jaipur (or Dobber) – or 9 330ml cans of Gilded Label – in an hour. Damn right he was a mess. (He also effectively washed that lot downwardly with three cups of coffee – and all for a total cost of $4.l. Whatsoever else you tin can say about this stuff, it'south really cheap.)

Merely, as we've seen, the FDA has sprung into action, removing 4 Loko from auction. And information technology's not simply the canteen-of-Buckie-inna-can merchants that the FDA have gone after. (Buckfast also contains caffeine, incidentally; presumably they don't export.) New Century Brewing's Moonshot '69 has also got the cease-and-desist handling. A 5% beer (without whatsoever fruit flavourings) brewed by a one-adult female company, Moonshot doesn't share a lot with Four Loko, but what they do have in common is caffeine: the FDA are getting involved considering "caffeine was put straight in the [beer] every bit a food additive and was not naturally occurring, as it would be in a beer brewed with coffee". Well, you tin can't be besides careful.

But at least Four Loko is off the shelves. Or rather, it was, for as long as information technology took them to have out the caffeine – which wasn't very long. And so kids who have reached the historic period of 21 thinking of alcohol as a forbidden pleasure tin again bask the freedom to get wrecked, for a couple of dollars, on a drink that comes in eight refreshing fruit flavours.

What this story says to me is that abstinence and over-indulgence are two sides of the aforementioned coin. Each one feeds off the other, and neither of them represents a psychologically healthy attitude to booze. Where alcohol is concerned, "little and ofttimes" has to be the all-time policy – for the heed as well every bit the torso.

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Source: https://ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/wakey-wakey-rise-and-shine/