It’s become the fastest way to a morning full of regrets. And New York no longer wants any part of it.
Distributors will stop all shipments of the popular-culture blackout sensation Four Loko in the state of New York beginning Friday.
Four Loko, the monstrous-sized malt liquor beverage, typically has an alcohol content between 6 and 12 percent and a caffeine content greater than an 8-ounce cup of coffee. This, researchers and health officials say, is where things get “Loko.”
With the added caffeine, poor college students and others who drink the “blackout in a can” don’t feel the depressant effects of alcohol and, additionally, stay awake longer to drink a greater amount of alcohol.
With its order set to begin Friday, New York joins the list of growing states and universities that have banned the sale of the controversial drink, including Michigan, Washington, Temple University and the University of Rhode Island.
And while we don’t support an outright, Prohibition-style ban on the beverage, we acknowledge something needs to be done about the dangerous effects of these caffeine-laced alcoholic drinks.
The list of universities that heavily recommend students avoid the drink is growing rapidly, and education plus moderation is the key to stopping Four Loko from becoming, well, Loko.
Reverting to Prohibition-style models will only birth the possibility for governmental resentment and interstate smuggling of the drink that has already secured its place in the palates of many.
