Cocaine Drink Draws Criticism

NEW YORK—A functional beverage marketed by Las Vegas-based Redux Beverage under the name “Cocaine” has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and industry groups, who allege using the name on a beverage glamorizes an illegal and deadly drug.Available primarily in New York, but also in Los Angeles and San Diego, the beverage is positioned as a mixer for alcoholic beverages, with suggested cocktail names as Liquid Cocaine, Cocaine Smash, Cocaine Blast and even Cocaine Snort, according to Redux.

“There are only two reasons you would seek to use this infamous and insidious name to market your so-called energy drink,” said Councilman James Sanders Jr. of Queens. “Either you are woefully ignorant of the horrors of cocaine addiction, or your god is the dollar bill.”

Numerous lawmakers and health officials called on the government to investigate the drink and urged citizens to boycott the product. However, the beverage is marketed as a dietary supplement, which officials contend limits any actions they could take. However, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) sent the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a letter, in which the group noted FDA (www.fda.gov) has repeatedly advised both marketers of dietary supplements and the public of the agency’s position with respect to product names that connote illicit substances (www.fda.gov/fdac/departs/2004/304_upd.html). CRN (www.crnusa.org) also advised FDA the energy beverage is marketed with disease claims that would make it an unapproved drug, urging the agency to take action. The group further noted the marketing suggestion that this beverage be mixed with alcohol suggests it is not intended to supplement the diet by increasing total dietary intake of a recognized dietary ingredient. “Thus, if it were not an unapproved new drug, as discussed above, it would likely be properly categorized as a conventional food, subject to GRAS determination and new food additive requirements,” CRN wrote.