For those not in the know, Four Loko is a potent concoction: at 12 percent alcohol, it’s stronger than almost any beer.
Compound this elephantine gravity with a hefty dose of caffeine, some sugar and various flavorings and you have a beverage that gets you drunk but keeps you awake. Much to the dismay of students, a few colleges and several legislators have given serious consideration to a ban of the drink.
One of the commonly voiced complaints about Four Loko is that it combines caffeine, a stimulant, with alcohol, a depressant. This combination is what gives Four Loko its appeal: It gets users intoxicated quickly, but keeps them awake so they can continue drinking. The mixture is potentially dangerous, however, and drinking a large amount of alcohol so quickly is incredibly risky and can lead to tragedy.
Though we acknowledge the potential dangers inherent to Four Loko, we do not feel they warrant an outright removal of the beverage from shelves. First, there’s the problem of degree: if caffeine and alcohol are bad to mix, then are we also going to ban rum and Coke? A run-of-the-mill rum and Coke has nowhere near the caffeine that a Four Loko packs, but where do we draw the line?
More importantly, what does banning Four Loko say about modern ideas of personal responsibility? On Four Loko cans, it is clearly stated that the drink contains caffeine and is 12 percent alcohol by volume. If you are capable of absorbing this information and choose to consume said drink anyway, you should be prepared to take responsibility for whatever repercussions may arise from your consumption.
We reject the notion that students mistake Four Lokos for energy drinks or fail to understand that Four Loko gets you very drunk, very quickly. The perils of binge drinking were around before Four Loko, and will not go away if Four Loko is watered down or decaffeinated.
We all need to take responsibility when it comes to drinking alcohol. It only makes sense to read a label before consuming a substance. It is not up to college administrators and law-makers to tell us that Four Loko is a potentially awful decision in a pretty-colored can.