A local group that educates people about the safe consumption of alcohol is sounding the alarm about an American alcoholic malt beverage sold in Quebec and the potential for its abuse among youths.
It's called Four Loko - the cans have got a snazzy, colourful design, features fruity flavours such as peach and strawberry and,
"There's 11.9% of alcohol in this can and over 600 calories just from sugar," said Hubert Sacy, executive director of Educ'alcool, adding that the alcohol content is about the same as approximately four bottles of beer or four glasses of wine.
"The mixture between sugar and alcohol makes you drink much more than you think you're drinking and we have seen many young people getting intoxicated with that drink."
Sacy said they've filed a complaint about their marketing tactics to the Ethics Council of Quebec’s alcoholic beverage industry.
Sacy said they take issue with the company's ads depicting partying youths and the product being placed in stores next to the candy and chocolate.
"We're not challenging the legality of the marketing strategies, we're challenging the ethics of the marketing strategies," said Sacy in an interview with CJAD 800 News.
Phusion Projects which makes the beverage said in a statement to CJAD 800 News that it "takes very seriously their obligation to market their products only to adults of legal drinking age."
They said they work with "distributors and retailers to ensure the products are not mistakenly sold to minors," adding they "never want to see their products portrayed irresponsibly on social media' and they "constantly monitor these sites to remove unacceptable comments or images."