Staying a Step Ahead

…or, there’s a reason it’s called Four Loko (from “loco,” Spanish for “crazy”).

Please take a few minutes to review these ABC-TV - produced clips about Loko, a canned liquor
that has a 12% alcohol content and 156 mg caffeine, the equivalent of six cans of lite beer
combined with two cups of coffee.

This drug combination (alcohol and caffeine are usually not thought of as drugs, but they are)
turned out to be the cause of nine college students becoming violently ill –including unwanted
sex, alcohol poisoning and unconsciousness and one 19-year-old who suffered cardiac arrest –
that had investigators puzzled when they responded to a party with an unusually large number of
students severely ill.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/four-loko-drink-sickens-students-11970859 (5:25)

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/addiction-experts-concerned-about-four-loko-drink-
11919626&tab=9482931&section=1206835&playlist=1363742 (1:38)

College students are still three to seven years out from having a mature frontal lobe (the part of
the brain that controls impulsive behavior and weighs outcomes of a risk), while high school
students are at the peak of rebellion and risk-taking behavior as part of their normal development
– probably not unlike ourselves at that age! While nominal alcohol consumption by adolescents
(such as at religious or family occasions) will not impair their brain development, excessive
consumption can cause serious permanent damage that will derail their journey to a happy,
successful future.

The Washington Post article on this topic is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2010/10/26/AR2010102606828.html

Practical tips on how to talk to your teens about these and related topics can be found at
thepartnership@drugfree.org and timetotalk@drugfree.org (These are the Parent: the Anti-Drug
campaign sites.)

This message is a service of the Every 15 Minutes Committee. For more information, please
click on www.mhs-ptsa.org and then click on the Grim Reaper on the Home Page. Please also
click on the Safe Homes Pledge and consider joining, if you have not already done so.