Oct. 25--Following a report that nine Central Washington University students were
hospitalized after drinking a popular beverage containing caffeine and
alcohol, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said Monday he has
asked the FDA to ban the sale of such products.
"It's time to bring an end to the sale of alcoholic energy drinks," said
McKenna. "They're marketed to kids by using fruit flavors that mask the taste
of alcohol and they have such high levels of stimulants that people have no
idea how inebriated they really are."
Investigators Monday said a beverage called Four Loko made nine CWU
students so ill at an Oct. 8 party they required treatment at a hospital. "One
young woman was put on a respirator and nearly died," McKenna said in a letter
to the FDA.
At a Monday news conference at the university, CWU President James L.
Gaudino said the blood alcohol levels of hospitalized students ranged from
0.123 to 0.35. A blood-alcohol concentration of 0.3 is considered potentially
lethal.
Gaudino said each student had consumed the caffeinated malt liquor, Four
Loko, and some with other alcohol.
Police in the Roslyn area, where the party took place at a vacation home
owned by the family of a CWU student, had been investigating whether someone
had intentionally poisoned the victims, six of them women.
College officials Monday said that no students said they had been given
alcohol or drugs without their knowledge, that no sexual assault occurred at
the party and women were not "targeted."
Four Loko is among some two dozen products on the market combining a
stimulant with alcohol. Officials say a single 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko,
which is 12 percent alcohol, is comparable to drinking five or six beers.
McKenna said if the FDA does not ban the drinks, he'll join the
Washington State Liquor Control Board in calling for the Legislature to ban
the sale of them in this state.
A proposed ban on the products was considered by the Legislature earlier
this year and passed in the House, but did not reach the Senate floor.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who backed the bill, renewed her call Monday for
action on the issue in light of the CWU incident "Consensus among the medical
community is growing: combining alcohol with energy drinks is a dangerous
mix." the governor said in a statement.
"I am relieved that drugs were not secretly slipped into drinks, as many
originally feared. However, I am concerned about the rapid market growth of
pre-mixed alcohol energy drinks and their popularity with young people," she
said.
Brian Smith, spokesman for the state Liquor Board, said "It's a really
dangerous mix to put together caffeine or other stimulant with a sedative like
alcohol. ... The effect is you have a wide-awake drunk. People don't realize
they are as drunk as they are."
Smith said the products are not carried in state liquor stores but are
easily accessible at many convenience stores, and are often placed on store
shelves near energy drinks. The colorful cans and fruit flavors are clearly
aimed at young drinkers, he said.
Health experts have said caffeine suspends the effects of alcohol,
allowing people to continue drinking long after they normally would have
stopped.
The incident with CWU students was not the first time Four Loko has been
cited as the cause of a poisoning. Last month, 23 students at a college in New
Jersey were hospitalized after drinking the product.
A company official recently defended the beverage, noting that
long-familiar cocktails such as Irish coffee and rum-and-cola have combined
alcohol with a stimulant. And in recent years, a cocktail of vodka and Red
Bull has been popular with some young drinkers.
"Mixing caffeine and alcohol has been around a long time. It's nothing
new or novel," said Jaisen Freeman, a co-founder of Chicago-based Phusion
Projects. Freeman said the company's ad campaign makes it clear the product is
not an energy drink, and labels on the cans say it should not be used by
minors.
At CWU, Gaudino Monday announced a campus ban of alcoholic energy drinks
and called for more research on their effects.
"The health and safety of our students has to come first," said Gaudino.
"We need to make sure that we're sending a strong message to students about
the dangers of AEDs, and we need to know more about the way it affects health
and behavior."
Professor Ken Briggs, chair of Central's Department of Physical
Education, School and Public Health, said Four Loko, also known as "blackout
in a can" or "liquid cocaine," is one of the most popular of the two dozen
alcoholic energy drinks on the market.
He called the products "a binge-drinkers dream" because the caffeine and
other stimulants allow a drinker to ingest larger volumes of alcohol without
passing out.
Monday's announcement does not end the investigation into the Roslyn
party. Detectives are still seeking to determine who provided alcohol to the
sickened students, all of whom are under 21.
Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.
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