First clove cigarettes now Four Loko. Today, the FDA threatened the producers of Four Loko (and other companies that produce caffeinated malt beverages) into removing caffeine from their malt beverages. A quote from Ayn Rand's discussion of hard-core pornography sums up how I feel on this issue:
"But in the transition to statism, every infringement of human rights has begun with the suppression of a given right’s least attractive practitioners. In this case, the disgusting nature of the offenders makes it a good test of one’s loyalty to a principle."
I certainly didn't enjoy Four Loko. I prefer beer or wine and think that all malt beverages taste like high fructose corn syrup and stale keystone light. But the producers put out a wildly popular product that many people I know enjoyed (most without so much as vomiting) at an unbeatable price. By no means does the government need to step in and say that the producers have no right to sell that product to the consumers who wish to buy it because a few college kids have knowingly black themselves out. I have watched plenty of black outs and all night vomiting sessions that didn't involve Phusion Projects' products. How many people have drank themselves to death on vodka? Everclear? Whiskey? Should we ban those as well because they are a risk to college-age citizens? Such a ban negates the fact that people have a rational faculty on which they make decisions. It is not the government's job to ensure that we do with our lives it is OURS.
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