If you still live with your parents (sigh), you may have heard the buzz about Four Loko: the alcoholic caffeinated beverage being banned. This baby was set off in 2005 and lasted a good five years on the market, liquoring up drunks and college students galore at a reasonable price. The drink labeled by the media as the “blackout in a can†lived up to its hype as it would get you drunk quick, containing the same amounts of alcohol and caffeine as three beers and three cups o’ Joe, coming in six fruity flavors.
One problem: it tastes like the scum of the earth.
Seriously, whoever enjoyed this drink for the taste and stocked up on it is a moron. After trying half the flavors, one would never want to try the other three. The drink gave you such a bad taste, you’d swear motor oil and moose piss came in a fruit punch flavor.
However, as far as what the product was intended for, it did its job. The caffeine made you feel fine with the booze counterpart sneaking up on you and making you go from Jekyll to Hyde before you could say 1.21 jigawatts. You’d become a complete wreck in two cans or less and you’d feel like crap too – a feeling you usually didn’t feel until the morning after a night of partying.
You should have had a good ol’ shot of whiskey or a white Russian (the dude abides).
After trying the drink for the experience and knowing the deaths it’s being blamed for (that are causing the ban), you have to look at what the deceased did in combination with the drink and the events that unfolded during consumption in order to actually put up a real argument. You can’t just say something is evil, you have to figure out why.
Yes, it’s a terrible thing that six people died, but the same results would have occurred with the same amount of alcohol in place of the blamed brew.
Friends of the girl who drove into a telephone pole saw how she acted at the party and allowed her to get in the car. Not one of them claimed to have tried to stop her. They just blamed Four Loko, rather than themselves. They might have forgotten that there have been many drunk driving related deaths- way before Four Loko was even a thought.
The chap who drove through a red light, killing a man and his three sons – smoked marijuana and mixed various alcoholic beverages including Four Loko before he too got in his vehicle. Once again there were other alcoholic beverages consumed – not Four Loko alone.
In the end, Four Loko was a disgusting beverage that dastardly got one drunker than expected when they least expected, but it should not be a scapegoat for the responsibility of others and those that consumed it. It should not be banned, just monitored like every other drink you’d find in a bar.
This article is the sole opinion of its author and not the site it is published on.
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