Four Loko Social Policy

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Loco for Four Loko Recently in the news, there has been much talk about a fairly new alcoholic beverage. This beverage is called Four Loko. It comes in a 24oz colorful can, has many different flavors, and one can find them practically in any liquor store in your area. What separates this beverage from every other alcoholic drink is that it is composed of four main ingredients: alcohol, caffeine, taurine, and guarana. Basically Four Loko is an alcoholic energy drink. A single can contains 12% of alcohol plus the components of an energy drink. Consuming a single 24oz can is equivalent to drinking five beers and a cup of coffee. Talk about a bad hangover! Lately, this drink has received much attention from the media. People all around the country that have consumed the product are clamming that it has had many terrible side effects. These side effects include blacking out and even sometimes in extreme cases causing death. These claims have received so much attention by the media, that in the past few months, policymakers nation-wide have began taking action against Four Loko, by banning their products from the shelves. But we must ask ourselves is it really the product’s contents that are the problem or is it rather the policy-makers constructing the contents to be a problem? At the start of this past school year, many college kids have reported many instances of “blacking out”. They have gone on to blame Four Loko for being the cause of their black outs since the drink is composed of high alcohol and caffeine content. Just like many other energy drink companies, Four Loko targets and appeals to college kids because it allows one to stay awake and binge drink all night due to the caffeine. Hospitals have been seeing an increase in the number of college-aged kids due to the effects of the alcoholic energy drink. The blame is being put on Four Loko because experts

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