Four Loko: nothing but bad news

issue 10, Kyle McArthur, Opinion - By Kyle McArthur on Thursday, November 11, 2010 - 04:15

“If you have just one, you are going to have a good night.” Many people who choose to drink the popular alcoholic energy drink, Four Loko, share this opinion about it.

The exact opposite seems true. To me, a Four Loko is not only a dangerously chaotic mixture but also a waste of perfectly good alcohol.

A Four Loko contains both a stimulant and a depressant in the forms of caffeine and alcohol. The problem here is that these two chemicals are inherently butting heads with each other. When you drink a Four Loko, you are simultaneously telling your body to wake up from the stimulant and shut down from the depressant. This sounds like flat-out abuse to your organs and I can imagine them at one point saying, “Enough is enough,” and quitting. In short, Four Lokos wreak havoc on your body because you are sending it mixed messages.

The evidence of the strain a Four Loko places on your body is apparent from the various health problems that have been reported from the use of the drink. Associate Dean of Students Andre V. Coleman explained in an e-mail to the student body that these health problems include, “anxiety, heart palpitations, and psychosis-like episodes”.

Phusion Products, the creator of Four Loko, reports that a typical 23.5 ounce can of Four Loko has 12 percent alcohol content – comparable to four beers; however, according to recent medical incidents reported by the New York Times, the caffeine in a Four Loko initially makes a person feel less drunk than they actually are.

Since people will feel less drunk than they actually are, they will continue to drink in order to reach the point they expected to be with four drinks, which now takes maybe six drinks or more. Once the caffeine wears off, the alcohol percentage of these drinks begins to be felt in full effect to the surprise of the drinker.

Beyond the dangers involved with Four Loko, the question must be asked, “What is the point?” I say this because I feel that most people who are drinking a Four Loko are doing so with the intention of getting drunk. With that in mind, four drinks are enough to get the vast majority of people intoxicated. So if your goal is to get drunk, why would you want to mix your drinks with something that will make you feel less drunk? Mixing drinks like this hinders the goal of “getting wasted.” This makes a Four Loko an overall impractical drink because you are essentially wasting some of the alcohol you are consuming in terms of how you feel.

The source of all of the controversy and many of the reported health problems from this drink come from that point right there. In order to solve this, it is important for people to keep a tally of how many drinks they have had rather than how drunk they are feeling. At the same time, if you wish to drink alcohol, there is no reason to have the caffeine basically “waste” part of the buzz you are getting from the drink. Your money is better spent elsewhere.