"But Mom! I want to go to the park!"
When I was a kid, there were plenty of parts of "no," I didn't understand. As I grew up, I found out it wasn't just my parents I would have to look to for the green light. Until I was 16, it wasn't Mom and Dad saying I couldn't drive, but the laws of New York State. When I turned 21, federal law finally allowed me to imbibe my first taste of alcohol (and if you believe that let's turn this boat around before we sail off the edge of this flat earth). Now, as a full-fledged adult -- if you don't believe me you should have seen my 5 o'clock shadow the other day, thanks in part to the extra hour from Daylight Savings Time -- I can drink, smoke, vote, and gamble to my liver, lungs, wallet, and conscience's content and inclinations.
Not necessarily. It looks like our nanny state has found our stash of Playboys under the mattress and our bottle of Admiral Nelson rum in the closet. Don't let the plastic bottle fool you -- admiral is a higher rank than captain -- but if a handful of people start using the contents of that bottle or the contents of, say, a 23.5 ounce can of 12 percent alcohol by volume, fruity, caffeinated beverage, to where it causes self-harm, stop the presses, ring the alarm, and hide your kids, hide your wife, because they'll start snatching your Four Loko up.
All across the nation, Four Loko fever is spreading. Four Loko, easily identifiable by its neon camouflage pattern at the front of your local convenience store's refrigerator, has been selling like hot cakes, if hot cakes were $3 cans of over-sugared, highly-caffeinated malt beverage. If we're going to get all hot and bothered about cheese, is it any wonder the big wigs and small wigs of government and academia are going "loco" to ban Four Loko?
What happened to personal responsibility and moderation? When universities and the government start acting in loco (Loko?) parentis, when do young adults get a chance to act and think for themselves? Drink a Four Loko, throw up in a cab and on your friends, and get carried home on your 22nd birthday and you'll make the decision for yourself whether or not you want a Watermelon Four Loko the next time you're at the corner bodega. I can buy Devil's Springs 160-proof vodka and mix it with Kool Aid powder, throw in a couple 5-Hour Energy drinks and I've got myself a sugary, caffeinated, death in a cup atom bomb. I don't recommend this hooch, but it's my prerogative if I want to go out and buy all of these components, even 5-Hour Energy, which is not FDA-approved (whereas Four Loko is), mix them up and paint the town red - which may not just be an expression if I got my hands on some red paint, given the energy and drunkenness induced by that creation.
Already, Michigan, the mitten of the Great Lakes, has banned Four Loko from in-state purchase, while colleges across the nation are prohibiting the drink on campus. It's offensive enough that most states maintain blue laws (not that I really ever want to buy alcohol on Sunday mornings), but now it's not just "when" that we are being told we can purchase, but "what." Fortunately, for my thinning wallet, the Empire State cannot ban products that already have FDA-approval, but not for lack of trying and an agenda to create a loophole.
Four Loko is far from my first choice if I want a stiff drink, but I don't think that it should not be allowed to be a choice. Bright colors and flavors does not equal marketing to kids, and shouldn't the stores that sell Four Loko be ensuring that they are only selling this product to adults? Trust me: Four Lokos do not taste like candy. And yes, I know they are far from healthy, but all this month, while people are licking their fingers after downing the limited-time offer, 500-calorie McRib, or drinking their limited-edition Spike Lee-collaboration Absolut Brooklyn vodka because of its bright, hip logo, let's realize we all have the capacity to decide for ourselves whether or not something warrants being illegal, or if it's merely something that's "bad" for us that we can choose whether or not to purchase.
Four Loko is not some new, untested substance, and it's a far cry from meth, crack, even marijuana, which are illegal for (more) valid reasons. Four Loko is like any other mixed drink we choose to make or malt beverage we can buy, bearing the same inherent danger as these drinks. There are bigger fish to fry than "issues" like caffeine in alcoholic beverages or steroids in baseball. The government needs to regulate emissions standards, off-shore drilling, the quality of meats in our supermarket, and various other aspects of society with significant impacts and exigency that we as individuals cannot regulate or control, not the minutia of what we eat, what we drink, and how we decide to let off a little steam and get Loko. So calm down, Mom and Dad, I'm not a little kid anymore and I've got this ... I'll be at the park.
Follow Jeff A. Katz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Jeff_A_Katz
More ridiculous than 4 loko, cheaper, and you dont even need to be 21 to buy the 5HE
Marijuana is illegal for what VALID reasons?
Legalizing Marijuana would not aid the Mexican drug lords, as marijuana is only a small piece of the pie, in which these crime syndicates have their hands in. They make money off of it, but the majority of their money is made through cocaine, heroin, fire arms, meth. If the US made it legal, you would see a spike in prices in other illicit substances.
The real reason, I suspect, federal policy won't change, is because of the health industry. They have every reason to try and keep marijuana off the streets, as to keep the bottles of pills in your cabinet.
Now, I don't agree with the outlaw of marijuana from a historical standpoint (made illegal basically because of racism, protecting corporate profits, and William Randolph Hearst), but since it was made illegal now I think we find ourselves in a sticky situation in making it legal -- namely Mexican drug lords. I think lifting the ban on marijuana now would make Mexican crime spill over into the United States -- these drug cartels are not going to want to lose their profits to U.S. growers. I can't foresee the future (maybe with less emphasis on the DEA stopping the flow of marijuana they can focus more on violent crime protection or something), so I don't know what would happen if marijuana were made illegal. But yes, a lot of scientific and medical evidence shows how relatively harmless marijuana is to people (apart from a slightly lower sperm count -- which even food colorings can bring about). So in that sense, I agree, people should be able to make their own choices to what they do and don't put into their body, apart from when the substance makes you lose control/become reckless/violent even without abuse.
But if it is serious - I'm really curious what you think would happen if marijuana was legalized in the US. Is your concern that the "Mexican drug lords" would invade the country? That they'd start to terrorize border states and demand that we make marijuana illegal again so they could smuggle it in for higher profits? Or are you concerned violence would escalate in Mexico due to job and financial losses due to the legalization of marijuana?
I liked your sense of humor in your article but I can't tell if this was a joke or not.
Schools/states need to reevaluate their attitude on college drinking. At Boston University, we don't even have medical amnesty laws for students who are hospitalized for drinking. In other words, University administration forces students to make a decision when their friend has drank too much: sacrifice their scholarship/academic standing/place in the University or risk their friend's life. I wrote an article on this which I share with the Huffington Post readers who are interested in the BU student perspective: www.mayh3m.com/?p=423
What is dangerous is the knee jerk reaction of many in this country to take fads and blow them out of proportion. I couldn't help but to think about the famed "jenkem epidemic" that swept the country several years ago. Police departments, PTAs, and news organizations were panicking because children were inhaling the potentially fatal gas that was produced by fermenting fecal matter and urine. The gas, we were told, was potentially fatal and was being used by tons of children because it was easy to produce. What was the problem with these stories? They were blown way out of proportion, not a single kid was hospitalized after using the gas (or even admitted to using it). It just was a "oh my god, look at what the kids are doing now" story that got picked up and focused on. After all the smoke cleared, it turned out that much of the national chaos around the gas was triggered by a prank that was played by some kids who assumed that adults would lose their collective minds when they heard about a new durg. They were right then, and unfortunently not much has changed.
Four Loko isn't a big deal and people need to calm down.
I hate to break it to you Jeff, but it is an untested substance and is only a far cry from the other substances you mention in terms of its widespread availability. There is an energy drink epidemic in this country that Four Loko and other alcospeeding drinks are capitalizing on.
My organization, http://thinkdrink.org was created to raise awareness about this growing problem threatening our youth. It is time to Think Before You Drink.
What aspect of our society is more important to protect than the safety of our children?
I'm sorry, but when people say they're doing things "for the children" I always cringe. The "children" are ADULTS. If you want to spot underage consumption of Four Loko, then that's a different story, but at the end of the day ADULTS should be allowed to do as they please with their own bodies. If you want to provide them with information regarding safe an unsafe behaviors, fine...but acting like the banning of substances is a good idea puts you at an ideological level akin to old school prohibitionists.
Basic freedom. Besides, this drink is already illegal for children, so your argument is nothing more than a red herring.
These drinks are unsafe and speak to a greater energy drink epidemic in this country.
As you said, Loko's selling like hotcakes right now. If people really thought it was dangerous and it was directly injuring or killing people, consumers would stop buying it! I think it's just a fad and stores choice to stock it is something for the market to decide. It will just be something else getting banned in 6 months whether this is banned now or not. Heard of MadBallr yet?
That's completely untrue. Alcohol and tobacco are just the first two obvious examples that come to my mind. The biggest problem with Four Loko is that it, like 5 hour energy, packs such an enormous punch in such a small and easily consumable container. The caffeine levels of these products are off the charts and until the FDA can assess the possible health risks, it needs to be taken off the shelves.
With the flurry of articles warning against the dangers of the MISUSE of Four Loko (a synecdoche of alcohol in general) and the ingredients and warnings on the can label, don't you think people know the "hidden dangers" of the drink? Everyone learns smoking is bad for them from before they even learn their multiplication tables. No amount of "Truth" has stopped cigarettes. No amount of melanoma (or repeats of the Jersey Shore) has shut down tanning salons.
People should be given the tools and knowledge to make their own decisions. Yes, there is a lot of alcohol. Yes, there is a lot of sugar. Yes, there is a lot of caffeine. But if someone wants that, I don't see why someone else should be the one stopping them. Where do we draw the line between personal responsibility and excessive oversight? Nick Naylor's salient argument, "Perhaps Vermont Cheddar should come with a skull and crossbones," comes to mind.
I hope not -- I really, really love cheese.
24 ounce cans are hardly "small."
"The caffeine levels of these products are off the charts"
Two small cups of coffee worth of caffine isn't off the chart, unless you have a very small chart.