Americans Are Closely Divided Over Ban On Alcoholic Energy Drinks
As the federal Food and Drug Administration pushes to remove caffeine from alcoholic energy drinks such as Four Loko and Joose, new polling finds that Americans have mixed views on such a ban.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 43% of Adults favor a government ban on the sale of alcoholic energy drinks. Forty percent (40%), however, disagree with a ban on these drinks. Another 17% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Still, 65% of adults are at least somewhat concerned about the potential dangers of these drinks. Thirty-two percent (32%) are not concerned. These findings include 40% who are Very Concerned and just eight percent (8%) who are Not At All Concerned.
After weeks of pressure from the FDA, the makers of Four Loko and other caffeinated alcoholic beverages announced they will be removing the caffeine from their products. According to news reports, one of the drinks contains up to three coffee cups worth of caffeine and twice the amount of alcohol as a bottle of beer. The ban follows cases of underage drinkers who received alcohol poisoning from the drinks, including a couple of fatalities.
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The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on November 18-19, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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