Frosh week at universities is a time for many young minds to celebrate a new chapter of life—but it also is synonymous with heavy drinking, and Montreal emergency room doctors are cautioning against a particular product that is known in the U.S. as blackout in a can: Four Loko.
"It's a mix of highly concentrated alcohol as an energy drink, where a lot of alcohol will be consumed and absorbed later on," toxicologist Dr. Sophie Gosselin said, which could leading to possible alcohol poising.
Four Loko has long been derided as a product favoured by underage and newly-legal binge drinkers, and has been advertised in the past as "blackout in a can" in the United States. It is known by some users as "liquid crack."
While it may not be apparent by its sugary taste, each canned flavour carries between 11.9 and 14 per cent alcoholic content, though lower levels of alcohol per volume are sold where regulations prohibit higher levels of alcohol.
The flavoured malt liquor has been available for sale in Quebec since 2015. A year earlier, production was temporarily halted in the United States following a settlement between Four Loko's parent company and 20 states, which accused the company of "promoting the drink to underage youth, promoting dangerous and excessive consumption of Four Loko and failing to disclose to consumers the effects and consequences of drinking alcoholic beverages combined with caffeine."
Montreal students say it is becoming increasingly popular.
"I'm seeing it a lot more these days, it's gaining a lot more popularity within the past six months to a year," said Daniel Sciascia, a frosh leader at Concordia University.
Concordia Student Life mananger Terry Kyle admits with Four Loko being so widely available at depanneurs near both university campuses, it is hard to stop students from indulging.
"It is a fine line because they are young people and young people are learning difficult things about life," she added.
On Sunday, many depanneurs around university campuses were reporting low stock of Four Loko, with some practically selling out.
Dr. Gosselin warns users that choose to imbibe to keep track of what they drink and stay within their limits.
For its part, the company that makes the drink says it hasn't contained caffeine since 2010.
And, in a statement to CJAD 800 News, Phusion Products says "Four Loko cans feature five separate statements regarding the alcohol content of the beverage so our consumers clearly understand the amount of alcohol in our products."
It says any alcoholic beverage can be abused and "our message is clear: If you choose to drink, please drink responsibly."