Caffeinated malt liquor — which contributed to the hospitalization of nine underage Central Washington University students and the police-involved shooting of a Vancouver man — will be banned from Washington’s grocery and convenience stores, Gov. Chris Gregoire announced Wednesday.
Retailers have a week to clear millions of dollars worth of alcoholic energy drinks from their shelves. The emergency ban, similar to those in Michigan, Utah and Oklahoma, takes effect Nov. 18. Washington’s rule targets beer-based drinks that also feature caffeine, such as the malt-liquor energy drink Four Loko.
Gregoire, who requested that Washington’s Liquor Control Board approve the ban, said a strong caffeine-and-alcohol combination could result in people drinking too much by masking alcohol’s typical depressant effects. She also said alcohol-based energy drinks — sometimes fruit-flavored, often sold in brightly colored cans — are too appealing to young drinkers.
“It’s no different than the kind of appeal that Joe Camel had to our kids when it came to cigarettes,” she said Wednesday.
Clark County substance abuse counselors and authorities expressed the same concern, saying the drink has become especially popular with underage drinkers, who down it like soda.
Four Loko was at the forefront of two Vancouver police investigations in September: an injury crash involving four teenagers who had allegedly been consuming the caffeinated malt liquor, and the officer-involved shooting of a 22-year-old war veteran, who had consumed as many as four cans of it. The 22-year-old had been acting threatening and refusing to drop his handgun when he was fatally shot by officers.
Angela Ball, a counselor at Daybreak Youth Services, a residential addiction treatment program, said that the majority of her young clients have rapidly started consuming the drink over the past six months.
“I agree with (the ban) because I feel these drinks are targeted toward youth,” Ball said Wednesday. “I think it’s an important message it sends to these companies.”
Ball said she did have concerns, though, about the fallout of banning the drinks outright: Does this mean people will go to illegal lengths to obtain them? And how does the ban treat homemade alcoholic energy drinks?
“What would be the difference with getting a Rockstar and adding something to it?,” Ball said.
Vancouver police Sgt. Pat Johns agreed, but added: “True, but it requires that extra step and the realization of what you’re getting yourself into.” Cans of Four Loko are often on store shelves next to traditional energy drinks and could be mistaken as just that, Johns added.
Johns said Wednesday he was pleased with the ban. There have been a variety of criminal incidents in the city and county related to alcoholic energy drinks, and he sees the action by the liquor board as a result of heightened awareness among law enforcement, officials and the media.
“All of these combined to make that happen,” Johns said.
Alcoholic energy drinks drew national attention after an October party in Roslyn, a picturesque mountain town known as the place where part of the 1990s television series “Northern Exposure” was filmed.
Nine Central Washington University students who drank Four Loko were hospitalized with blood-alcohol levels ranging from 0.12 percent to 0.35 percent, and a female student nearly died, university President James L. Gaudino said. A blood-alcohol concentration of 0.30 percent is considered potentially lethal.
Washington’s emergency ban specifically covers products that combine beer, strong beer or malt liquor with caffeine, guarana, taurine or other similar substances found in regular energy drinks.
Washington’s beer and wine distributors were troubled by the quick turnaround to remove Four Loko and similar products from store shelves. They had hoped the state Liquor Control Board would give the industry a month to handle the change.
Lobbyists for the Washington Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association said the ban would affect about $3 million worth of products already in retailers’ hands, much of it in convenience stores.
Any drinks that can’t be sold before Nov. 18 could be returned to wholesalers. Those distributors aren’t obliged to buy the products back, but probably will to maintain good standing with their retail customers, lobbyist Ron Main said.
It will then be up to the wholesalers to find a way to return the product to manufacturers or move it to other states.
“We’re not going to be able to move $3 million in inventory in a week,” Main said.
Washington’s ban is good for 120 days, but could be made permanent by the state Liquor Control Board or Legislature.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
