If We Ban Four Loko, We Shall Ban Port Wine Too (Portugal Will Be Thrilled To Hear That!)

In recent highly exaggerated vitriolic attacks (see here and here) in French-speaking newspapers led by the media-puritanistic complex and his cohort of doctors in Porsches, another legally sold product in depanneurs came under fire, namely the alcoholic beverage Four Loko.

A few days later, a follow-up attack targetted another similar beverage called FCKD UP, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on Four Loko.

So first, let’s see the facts: what is Four Loko?

• It is a beverage with an alcohol content of about 12%, which is equivalent to wine, even a little lower;

• It is sold in a medium sized can of 568 ml, which is slightly more than two thirds of the volume of a 750 ml conventional bottle of wine;

• The beverage contains a good quantity of sugar, as much as Coca Cola, maybe a bit more;

• It is marketed under a dynamic brand featuring bright colors, and available in flavors of fruits such as strawberries, grapes and watermelon.

There was a time when Four Loko contained energy drink types of additives such as caffeine, guarana and taurine, but they were all removed many years ago.

All that remains now is alcohol and sugar. So this is it! There is nothing new under the sun: all alcoholic beverages have alcohol and sugar (alcohol is made from sugar).

Now, at present, Four Loko is not even the sweetest of alcoholic beverages, nor the most alcoholic of sweetened drinks available on the market.

Here is a very simple comparison between Four Loko, a Rum & Coke and some good old tawny port wine sold at the SAQ (Quebec’s alcohol monopoly) or at any of the 400 c-stores and grocery stores authorized by the SAQ.

For comparison purposes, we have all put them in one liter (1000 ml) format.

	Quantity	Sugar (grams)	Alcohol (ml)
Rum & Coke	1,000 ml	73	133
Four Loko	1,000 ml	106	119
Port wine 10 years Tawny	1,000 ml	106	200

Thus, Four Loko is sweeter than a Rum & Coke, but less alcoholic. And it is as sugared as a tawny port wine, but much less alcoholic (40% less).

So through what kind of perverse logic could we ban Four Loko and not port wine?

How could we include such discrimination in the legislation when it is not purely based on the ingredients? Like this for example?

Article 2.15 of the Law on Alcoholic Beverages: A package of alcoholic beverages that looks too “cool and wild” is prohibited, under decrees by officials of the Ministry of Health.

This would bring us a lot closer to Iran as a society.

Let us now review some juicy extracts of the nonsense media trial against Four Loko, to finally convince us of the absurdity of the whole thing:

• “The head of the emergency of the CHU Sainte-Justine, Dr. Antonio D’Angelo, recently treated a 14-year-old who had lost consciousness after drinking the contents of two cans of Four Loko – the equivalent of eight glasses wine – in less than 30 minutes. ” – La Presse. Well, yes, but if he had drunk the same amount of alcohol in the form of vodka, wine or beer, how would that be more acceptable?

• “The danger of the Four Loko drink is that the sweet taste masks that of alcohol. [The children] will drink too much, too quickly, to realize too late that they have exceeded their limits. “- La Presse. So according to you, all cocktails and fruit punches are to be avoided now, because the sweet taste masks that of alcohol. We should therefore only allow alcoholic beverages mixed with algae, mushrooms and carrots, so we will protect our youth! Are you kidding?

• “It’s a stupid drink,” says Dr. Gosselin. There’s so much alcohol in there, so much sugar. Young people drink it like a shooter. They completely trivialize the alcohol content of the product. “- La Presse. There is no more alcohol than wine, and as much sugar as Coke. So does this mean that wine is stupid too? Coke is stupid too?

Or maybe that same word applies better to this whole crazy discourse? We certainly think so.