iHaveNet.com
FDA Cracks Down on Caffeine-Charged Alcoholic Drinks | United States
Online Breaking News Headlines Single Source to Headlines Breaking News Current Events Top Stories. Find out what is happening in News & the World. Check out iHaveNet.com for the latest news & current events articles plus Movie Reviews, Wolfgang Puck Recipes, NFL Previews Analysis and Politics. Your Single Source to News Articles, Current Events & Reviews.
  • HOME
  • WORLD
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Balkans
    • Caucasas
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Europe
    • Europe
    • Indian Subcontinent
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • North Africa
    • Scandinavia
    • Southeast Asia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    • Argentina
    • Australia
    • Austria
    • Benelux
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Ireland
    • Israel
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Mexico
    • New Zealand
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • South Africa
    • Spain
    • Taiwan
    • Turkey
    • United States
  • USA
    • ECONOMICS
    • EDUCATION
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • FOREIGN POLICY
    • POLITICS
    • OPINION
    • TRADE
    • Atlanta
    • Baltimore
    • Bay Area
    • Boston
    • Chicago
    • Cleveland
    • DC Area
    • Dallas
    • Denver
    • Detroit
    • Houston
    • Los Angeles
    • Miami
    • New York
    • Philadelphia
    • Phoenix
    • Pittsburgh
    • Portland
    • San Diego
    • Seattle
    • Silicon Valley
    • Saint Louis
    • Tampa
    • Twin Cities
  • BUSINESS
    • FEATURES
    • eBUSINESS
    • HUMAN RESOURCES
    • MANAGEMENT
    • MARKETING
    • ENTREPRENEUR
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • STOCK MARKETS
    • Agriculture
    • Airline
    • Auto
    • Beverage
    • Biotech
    • Book
    • Broadcast
    • Cable
    • Chemical
    • Clothing
    • Construction
    • Defense
    • Durable
    • Engineering
    • Electronics
    • Firearms
    • Food
    • Gaming
    • Healthcare
    • Hospitality
    • Leisure
    • Logistics
    • Metals
    • Mining
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Newspaper
    • Nondurable
    • Oil & Gas
    • Packaging
    • Pharmaceutic
    • Plastics
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Shipping
    • Sports
    • Steelmaking
    • Textiles
    • Tobacco
    • Transportation
    • Travel
    • Utilities
  • WEALTH
    • CAREERS
    • INVESTING
    • PERSONAL FINANCE
    • REAL ESTATE
    • MARKETS
    • BUSINESS
  • STOCKS
    • ECONOMY
    • EMERGING MARKETS
    • STOCKS
    • FED WATCH
    • TECH STOCKS
    • BIOTECHS
    • COMMODITIES
    • MUTUAL FUNDS / ETFs
    • MERGERS / ACQUISITIONS
    • IPOs
    • 3M (MMM)
    • AT&T (T)
    • AIG (AIG)
    • Alcoa (AA)
    • Altria (MO)
    • American Express (AXP)
    • Apple (AAPL)
    • Bank of America (BAC)
    • Boeing (BA)
    • Caterpillar (CAT)
    • Chevron (CVX)
    • Cisco (CSCO)
    • Citigroup (C)
    • Coca Cola (KO)
    • Dell (DELL)
    • DuPont (DD)
    • Eastman Kodak (EK)
    • ExxonMobil (XOM)
    • FedEx (FDX)
    • General Electric (GE)
    • General Motors (GM)
    • Google (GOOG)
    • Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
    • Home Depot (HD)
    • Honeywell (HON)
    • IBM (IBM)
    • Intel (INTC)
    • Int'l Paper (IP)
    • JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
    • J & J (JNJ)
    • McDonalds (MCD)
    • Merck (MRK)
    • Microsoft (MSFT)
    • P & G (PG)
    • United Tech (UTX)
    • Wal-Mart (WMT)
    • Walt Disney (DIS)
  • TECH
    • ADVANCED
    • FEATURES
    • INTERNET
    • INTERNET FEATURES
    • CYBERCULTURE
    • eCOMMERCE
    • mp3
    • SECURITY
    • GAMES
    • HANDHELD
    • SOFTWARE
    • PERSONAL
    • WIRELESS
  • HEALTH
    • AGING
    • ALTERNATIVE
    • AILMENTS
    • DRUGS
    • FITNESS
    • GENETICS
    • CHILDREN'S
    • MEN'S
    • WOMEN'S
  • LIFESTYLE
    • AUTOS
    • HOBBIES
    • EDUCATION
    • FAMILY
    • FASHION
    • FOOD
    • HOME DECOR
    • RELATIONSHIPS
    • PARENTING
    • PETS
    • TRAVEL
    • WOMEN
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • BOOKS
    • TELEVISION
    • MUSIC
    • THE ARTS
    • MOVIES
    • CULTURE
  • SPORTS
    • BASEBALL
    • BASKETBALL
    • COLLEGES
    • FOOTBALL
    • GOLF
    • HOCKEY
    • OLYMPICS
    • SOCCER
    • TENNIS
  • Subscribe to RSS Feeds EMAIL ALERT Subscriptions from iHaveNet.com RSS
    • RSS | Politics
    • RSS | Recipes
    • RSS | NFL Football
    • RSS | Movie Reviews

ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS | OPINION | TRADE

U.S. CITIES:  

HOME > USA

FDA Cracks Down on Caffeine-Charged Alcoholic Drinks
Alex Kingsbury

 

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Four Loko announced that it was dropping caffeine from its alcoholic drinks

The human body has a barometer to tell the brain when it has consumed too much alcohol. After one too many, speech is slurred, the head aches, and the body becomes drowsy and gets wobbly on its feet.

But caffeine can mask those sensory clues that usually stop drinkers.

And now the Food and Drug Administration has declared it an illegal and "unsafe food additive" in a specific type of alcoholic beverage. The decision, which comes after a yearlong review of the issue, was accompanied by warning letters sent last week to four makers of caffeinated alcoholic drinks with names like "Four Loko," "Moonshot," and "Joose." The drinks vary in potency, but some contain the equivalent of several beers and multiple cups of coffee in a single can. To put that in perspective: a single $2.50 can of Four Loko, if consumed within an hour, will likely make an average 200-pound man too intoxicated to legally drive a car. That's one reason this particular drink has earned the sobriquet "blackout in a can."

The federal crackdown follows several state-level efforts to limit the sale and marketing of the increasingly popular beverages, which government officials contend are marketed toward the young. In 2008, 13 state attorneys general began investigations into the drinks; and Utah, Oklahoma, Washington state, and Michigan have already banned their sale. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House office of drug control policy, commended the FDA move this month saying that the drinks are "designed, branded, and promoted to encourage binge drinking."

The brewers, for their part, responded quickly to the expected move by the FDA. Even before the announcement was made last week, Phusion Projects, which makes Four Loko, announced that it was dropping caffeine and other stimulative ingredients from its alcoholic drinks. New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, a leading proponent of the ban, said that the ruling "should be the nail in the coffin of these dangerous and toxic drinks."

But the ban will only impact a limited, if growing, sector of the spirits market. As the Four Loko makers noted in a recent statement, if the combination of alcohol and caffeine was unsafe, then "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."

Critics of the drinks point to research that suggests that the culture of consumption of these particular drinks is particularly alarming from a public health perspective. For instance, a study by the Academy of Emergency Medicine found that "drinkers who consume alcohol with energy drinks are about twice as likely as drinkers who do not report mixing alcohol with energy drinks to report being taken advantage of sexually, to report taking advantage of someone else sexually, and to report riding with a driver who was under the influence of alcohol." But that study didn't just focus on caffeinated alcoholic beverages, it also focused on the mixing of spirits like vodka with energy drinks like Red Bull. Even under the FDA ruling, ordering such concoctions at a bar remains legal.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

Hot Time in the Old Town: The Great Heat Wave of 1896 and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt

American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People

Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.How the Working Poor Became Big Business

Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life

The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

Courage Grows Strong at the Wound

 

Read the latest political news.

 

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

 

  • America's Hidden Hunger and What We Can Do About It
  • Belt-Tightening for United States Foreign Policy
  • Public Perception Masks Stark Health Care Realities
  • Global Warming Conference Faces Meltdown
  • America's Credibility Deficit
  • WikiLeaks Disclosures Not Earth Shattering
  • A WikiLeaks Wake-up Call
  • WikiLeaks May End Up Helping America
  • WikiLeaks and The Invisible Government
  • Wikileaks: More Than Just an Embarrassment
  • Wikileaks: Undiplomatic Diplomacy
  • Will WikiLeaks Hobble U.S. Diplomacy?
  • How WikiLeaks Can Make Us Less Free
  • Wikileaks: Small Revelations That May Cause a Big Idea to Take Hold
  • Hunting Down Anwar al-Awlaki, Public Enemy No. 1
  • FDA Cracks Down on Caffeine-Charged Alcoholic Drinks
  • The American Dream: Pro and Con
  • Four Loko: Boozy Up-and-Down Makes This Loko Loco
  • Crossroads on the Path to a More Perfect Union
  • The Right Way to Reform Healthcare
  • The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective
  • Everybody Discriminates in Some Way
  • Banks Need to Pay for Foreclosure Shenanigans
  • The Distinctly American Tradition of Charity
  • Giving Away a Fortune to Keep the American Dream Alive
  • Public Service Groups That Are Making a Difference
  • Public Service: Citizenship Is More than Paying Taxes and Voting
  • Public Service Is the Antidote For Voter Anger
  • Raising People's Quality of Life Drives Public Service
  • Public Service: Ordinary Americans Changing Communities for the Better
  • How to Make a Career in Public Service
  • How to Choose the Best Volunteering Option
  • Recession Driving Changes in Corporate Philanthropy
  • How to Avoid Charity Scams
  • The Pros and Cons of Military Service
  • Compulsory National Service Would Strengthen American Citizenship
  • Compulsory National Service Would Undermine the American Character
  • Why China Has a Point About Quantitative Easing
  • Out of Play
  • Eliminating Poverty: Lesson From Childhood
  • Wall Street Had a Meltdown, and All We Got (Besides the Bill) Was an Interminable Argument
  • Changing Our Tune to Natural Gas
  • Supreme Court's Citizens United Decision Will Warp Policymaking
  • Citizens United Decision: Money at Issue Funds Speech Not Candidates
  • Education and Wealth: Strongest Predictors of a Long Life
  • 'Citizen Journalism' Fad is Not Journalism
  • Life's Little Lows Big Part of Going to High School
  • Happiness is a Matter of Perspective
  • Binge Drinking Numbers Rising
  • The Republicans' Bizarre Attacks on Elites
  • Joe Klein and Diane Sawyer Tour the Real Reality
  • Troubled Times: When Mark Zuckerberg's Generosity Is Not Good Enough
  • Why on Earth Does America Want a Stronger Chinese Currency?
  • A Nation of Peasants?
  • Public Sector Workers Are the New Privileged Elite Class
  • Raising Retirement Age Will Help Save Social Security
  • Cutting Benefits Isn't the Way to Save Social Security
  • How the New Consumer Bureau Will Help You
  • Setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • The Truth Behind UFO Sightings and the U.S. Air Force
  • American Dream of Home Ownership Has Become a Nightmare
  • 5 Traits of the New American Consumer
  • Stoned on Righteousness

Receive Political Commentary Enter your email address:



Delivered by FeedBurner and iHaveNet.com

FDA Cracks Down on Caffeine-Charged Alcoholic Drinks

 

(c) 2010 U.S. News & World Report

 

Recommend

Search Powered By Google

Google Search   

Job & Career Search

career & job search                    job title, keywords, company, location

ADVERTISEMENT

POLITICS

Subscribe to Politics

Delivered by FeedBurner


Political Commentary

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

Your Ad Here
Your Ad Here
  • HOME
  • WORLD
  • USA
  • BUSINESS
  • WEALTH
  • STOCKS
  • TECH
  • HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • SPORTS

2010 Elections: FDA Cracks Down on Caffeine-Charged Alcoholic Drinks

  • Services:
  • RSS Feeds
  • Shopping
  • Email Alerts
  • Site Map
  • Privacy