Alcohol Abuse Advice

College incident causes high-alcohol, sugary drinks to come under scrutiny

College incident causes high-alcohol, sugary drinks to come under scrutiny

Sugary, high-alcohol energy drinks are now under scrutiny because of recent events that occurred at Central Washington University.

When a group of nine students from Central Washington University were rushed to the hospital on Friday, Oct. 8, doctors originally suspected the cause to be the date rate drug, Rohypnol. Now, investigators suspect the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko.

The 24-ounce can of fruity malt liquor is the equivalent of drinking four or more beers and a cup of strong coffee, according to The Washington Post. The students, whose ages ranged from 17 to 19, who drank Four Loko were hospitalized with blood-alcohol levels ranging from 0.12 percent to 0.35 percent. A blood-alcohol concentration of 0.30 percent is considered to be potentially lethal.

Four Loko, which costs around .50 per can, offers a cheap price and caffeine for all-night partying, making it an obvious choice for college students, according to the Washington Post . Calls to ban the drink have begun to spread across college campuses.

Because of this event, the Food and Drug Administration is also looking at the safety of adding caffeine to alcoholic beverages, according to Dr. Mary Buchwalder, medical director of the University of  Dayton Health Center.

“As long as these beverages are available, students should realize that if they have a lot of alcohol, and it may hit them pretty quickly,” she said. “Caffeine won’t protect them from the effects of the alcohol either.”

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant; caffeine is a stimulant. When people drink Four Loko, they are sending their brain very mixed signals, so, while they may think they’re alert, their body is just as impaired by the alcohol as if they don’t have caffeine, according to Buchwalder.

Senior early childhood education major Mindi Duncan said she decided to buy a Four Loko because of the low price and the tasty-looking flavors. She said she regretted her decision later.

“After buying [the Four Loko], I realized it was just a bad idea,” she said. “It was full of sugar, and the flavor wasn’t as good as I thought.”

Although Duncan did not have an experience like the students at Central Washington University, she said she would not recommend mixing Four Loko with any other alcoholic beverages.

This growing trend of mixing energy drinks and alcohol is occurring because it makes students feel alert and energetic, even if they are intoxicated, according to UD’s Drug Abuse Prevention Team’s (ADAPT) website. Feeling sober and alert after a night of drinking energy drinks and alcohol can cause students to stay out later and consume greater amounts of alcohol, and drink for longer periods of time, according to the website.

According to ADAPT, students need to be careful about mixing energy drinks with alcohol because when a person drinks alcohol, they become tired. Fatigue caused by alcohol is the body’s way of saying it has had enough to drink, according to ADAPT. It is dangerous to continue to add caffeine into the mix to try to fool someone’s body into thinking they are not as drunk as they really are, ADAPT’s website said.