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I always thought the litigation and regulatory pressure over this was misplaced. Consuming a single serving of the most outrageous product described in the arti
by Zak 2y ago
I always thought the litigation and regulatory pressure over this was misplaced. Consuming a single serving of the most outrageous product described in the article (22oz, 12% alcohol, 156mg caffeine) is not acutely dangerous to a healthy adult who isn't about to drive a car. Chugging multiple of them is a bad decision of course, but it's just as easy to drink other alcoholic beverages to excess - perhaps easier with hard liquor.
- TylerE 2y agoVery few adults, especially if we’re talking 40+, are healthy. By that age almost everyone has high blood pressure or asthma or a bad knee, or whatever.
- michaelt 2y agoI don't think "people aged 40+" were four loco's target market. Isn't this stuff mostly for 20-somethings on their way to a nightclub, who want to get drunk and stay up until 4am?
- gnabgib 2y agoWere they, perhaps, the target market when they were 20 years younger?
- supportengineer 2y agoI think I live in a different part of the world than you do.
- loeg 2y agoI know a lot of healthy adults in their 30s and 40s.
- supportengineer 2y agoAnd 50’s and 60’s even.
- itishappy 2y agoA can of FourLoco contains 4.75 servings.
- Zak 2y agoI assume you mean manufacturer-recommended servings printed on the label. I meant drinking one can.
- s1artibartfast 2y agoAn yet you can still buy cans of other malt drinks with even higher ABV and volume. An aisle over, you can by 1.75L of vodka for $9.99. That is 40 servings!
- margalabargala 2y agoA major difference is that bottle of vodka can be closed after being opened.
- loeg 2y agoThe malt liquors usually can't.
- dylan604 2y agoAn aisle over the other direction has micro brew IPAs with even higher ABV
- adolph 2y agoDo you have a citation for “4.75 servings?” The one thing from 2010 I could find has a serving size of one can. https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/four-loko/four-loko https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/four-loko/four-...
- itishappy 2y agoAt 12% ABV, a serving size is 5oz.[0] There's 23.5oz in a FourLoco. IMPORTANT EDIT: Apparently these labeling changes were made specifically due to a lawsuit against FourLoco.[1] So you're totally right, a serving was 1 can, despite having almost 5 drinks worth of booze. [0] https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/what-standard-drink https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/overview-a... [1] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2013/02/ftc-approves-modified-final-order-settling-charges-against-marketer-four-loko-malt-beverage https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2013/02/...
- lukev 2y ago> just as easy Citation needed. The social context matters. Alcohol and caffeine are not a wise combination. Socially, consuming both in parallel isn't common (Red Bull excepted, I suppose, but that was exactly the target market and inspiration for these as well.) The amounts are also deceptive from a cultural standpoint. Most people are not expecting a tall can to contain _nearly the same alcohol as a full bottle of wine_. It's the same reason we don't sell neat whisky in 12oz cans. Yes, people can choose how they imbibe, but product design does practically matter.
- dylan604 2y ago> Alcohol and caffeine are not a wise combination. Yet, what does every single person that's trying to sober up ask for or have suggested to them? Coffee. One of my favorite movie scenes is from "Flight - 2012" with Denzel and John Goodman trying to make Denzel's character "right". I love it for that fact that they don't try to call it "sober him up", but just to get him balanced. That's all the caffeine in the coffee is trying to do, yet people insist on saying "sober up"
- Terr_ 2y agoThe scary part of these "look towards caffeine for an answer" messages it that drunks taking caffeine will feel like they aren't impaired... but still fail at driving tests, etc. A charitable interpretation of these media-scenes it that one character is trying to help another disguise outward signals of their problem, while too many viewers misinterpret it as an actual cure. (Especially when the protagonist has plot-armor against failure.)
- Zak 2y agoI suppose I don't have evidence for the idea that it's as easy to drink four shots of liquor as a can of Fourloko. It's certainly less volume of liquid. > Socially, consuming both [alcohol and caffeine] in parallel isn't common Caffè corretto, Buckfast Tonic Wine, and Irish Coffee are all over a century old. > Most people are not expecting a tall can to contain _nearly the same alcohol as a full bottle of wine_. I'm not so sure about that. A 32oz can of 8% malt liquor, for example has about the same amount of alcohol. As for whisky by the can, it would need to be 6.6oz, not 12oz to equal the 2.64oz of pure ethanol in the most extreme product described in the article. I could see a reasonable argument for limiting the total amount of alcohol in containers that can't be reclosed, though that could easily ban traditional champagne bottles.
- adolph 2y agoI donno, it must something awful if Oregon bans you (Oregon decriminalized “heroin, methamphetamine, PCP, LSD and oxycodone” [0]): On November 20, 2010, Oregon Liquor Control Commission's five citizen commissioners held an emergency meeting resulting in a 4-1 vote on the ban. [1] 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Oregon_Ballot_Measure_110 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Oregon_Ballot_Measure_110 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Loko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Loko
- relaxing 2y agoThose were different points in history.