“ In other words, the Liquor Control Board has been trying to get these products off of the shelf for quite some time, and couldn’t get it done via traditional methods. Suddenly a news story appears where *gasp* college kids over-indulge in alcohol, one that coincidentally was one of the brands that the Liquor Control Board was trying to remove from the shelves. Two weeks later, in an emergency edict based off of this story, they are able to ban (albeit for only 120 days) these products, using this story as a de facto rationale for their decision.”
Accidental Hedonist, The Great Four Loco Scare of 2010
This is why the Four Loco saga is unnerving to me. Basically, an everyday event (a college kid over-drinks) is used to justify making something illegal because people just felt it should be illegal. What a dangerous precedent!
I’m struck by the juxtaposition between this scare and San Francisco’s banning and unbanning of Happy Meals. The motivations were the same for both prohibitions (I support neither, btw), but one’s concocted illegality breezed through legislation with the support of the nation and media because the beverage sat outside cultural norms.
Source: accidentalhedonist.com
