Company Defends Its Caffeinated Booze After Students Sickened
Photo Courtesy - ABC News(ELLENSBURG, Wash.) -- The company behind a controversial caffeinated alcoholic beverage that's being blamed for sickening dozens of Central Washington University students said it was the mixing of alcohol and possibly drugs that caused them to become seriously ill.
The aftermath of the party, where police found students passed out all over the house and rushed nine to the hospital, has renewed calls for bans on the drink Four Loko, which combines as much alcohol as a six-pack of beer and the equivalent of several cups of coffee.
Four Loko manufacturer Phusion Projects defended its product in a statement to ABC News, pointing to seven labels on the can warning of the drink's contents and calling attention to the need for identification to purchase.
Authorities who responded to the party said the students were in such bad condition they initially were believed to be the victims of the date rape drug. But police said Monday that toxicology tests on the students found no evidence of drug use.
Police called to the scene of the house party, in Rosyln, Wash., about 30 miles from the university, found young people -- many of them women -- passed out throughout the house and on the front lawn. Police were immediately suspicious that drugs were involved, but interviews with the students and toxicology tests ruled out drugs, police said.
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