Caffeinated alcoholic drinks to be pulled from shelves
By Matt Kawahara, Sacramento Bee
Stephanie Lake has seen the effects at UC Davis – students hospitalized after consuming high-octane alcoholic drinks that contain caffeine that masks how drunk they’re getting.
Lake, who coordinates the university’s alcohol intervention services, has been warning students that so-called “blackout in a can” drinks like Four Loko are too dangerous to drink.
“They need to take it off the market,” she said.
That will start happening.
The federal Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that adding caffeine to alcohol is “unsafe” and gave the four manufacturers of the beverages 15 days to either stop using caffeine in their products or stop selling them entirely.
Caffeine, health officials say, hides the effects of the alcohol and prevents people from realizing how intoxicated they really are.