One hour, two and a half cans of 4 Loko and a doctor on standby, Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz was out to prove a point, namely that alcoholic energy drinks are dangerous, very dangerous.
Conventional wisdom argues that the average number of drinks a person consumes per hour while at a bar, party, or club, is two. With that information under his belt, Ortiz began drinking. After 15 minutes his blood pressure and pulse spiked, leading Dr. Vincent Pedre to announce that the test would stop if his systolic blood pressure rose to 160. Ortiz’ blood pressure ended up slowing as the alcohol took hold, but his pulse remained high – peaking at 100 beats per minute as he was vomiting most of the liquid up.
When all was said and done, Ortiz's blood alcohol level was .182. That is more than two times the legal limit. His liver, alternatively, was unaffected, though Dr. Pedre argues such effects could take days to register.
On Wednesday, the FDA announced an effective ban on alcoholic energy drinks like 4 Loko, warning 4 companies that adding caffeine to liquor was unsafe. If those companies do not change their recipe’s the Federal Government could seize their products.
The companies involved in the “effective ban” are:
• Charge Beverages Corp.: Core High Gravity HG, Core High Gravity HG Orange, and Lemon Lime Core Spiked
• New Century Brewing Co., LLC: Moonshot
• Phusion Projects, LLC (doing business as Drink Four Brewing Co.): Four Loko
• United Brands Company Inc.: Joose and Max
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