The Quad-City Times - News, Sports and more from the Quad Cities region or Iowa and Illinois

You are not logged in.
Login

Log in to qctimes.com
Email:
Password:
Remember my information.
Register
Site Help

Illinois attorney general targets energy drink Blow

Font Size:

By St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Saturday, May 3, 2008 12:34 AM CDT | () comments

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is demanding that the makers of a white powdered energy drink called Blow immediately cease marketing and sales in her state.

“This is a blatant promotion of drug culture and addiction,” Madigan said. She said she is concerned about the effect on children.

Blow’s promoter doesn’t deny that the product, packaging and advertising make it look like cocaine. He insists he’s just “spoofing and mocking” the drug culture.

“I’m actually surprised” at Madigan’s action, promoter Logan Gola said Friday. “I think there’s way more issues that should be focused on than an energy drink mix.”

Gola’s lawyers are examining Madigan’s threat in a letter to him this week. For now, he is halting sales of Blow to Illinois residents of all ages.

Gola said Blow’s ingredients are “pretty standard” for energy drinks, except that it contains large amounts of caffeine: 240 milligrams per serving. He said that’s three times the amount in Red Bull, an energy drink marketed to athletes.

But he said it isn’t much more caffeine than Starbucks’ customers get in that company’s largest cup of coffee.

Caffeine is not illegal, and Gola said, “We are marketing this product lawfully.”

A spokeswoman for Madigan said she had not received any complaints from the public but decided to act after her office purchased Blow over the Internet.

Madigan said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers Blow a new drug because it intends to “affect the structure or any function of the body.”

The FDA has not approved Blow, “and therefore we believe it is in violation of the law,” Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said.

She said the attorney general could sue Blow under the Illinois Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which says a new drug may not be offered for sale unless first approved by the FDA.

She said the state also could act under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, which prohibits misrepresentation.

“In this case, we think Blow is marketed as a look-alike drug, which constitutes a deceptive practice,” Ziegler said.

She said Blow is marketed to “entice” minors to try illegal drugs, which is an unfair practice under the state’s fraud statute.

In the letter to Blow’s manufacturer, Kingpin Concepts in Las Vegas, the attorney general’s office noted that the product is packaged in “bricks.”

The letter calls Blow a “misbranded and unapproved drug” under state law and calls its comparison to illicit drugs a deceptive practice.

“Finally, your enticement of minors to try drugs is an unfair practice” under the state’s fraud laws.

Gola said he has been selling Blow since July. He now sells the drink in 1,400 bars, nightclubs, convenience stores and other outlets in every state as well as via the Internet, he said.

He wouldn’t disclose figures but said sales are doubling monthly.

He also wouldn’t disclose ownership of the company, except to say he is one of the owners.

Gola described himself as company founder, said he’s in his mid-30s and was formerly a real estate investor in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

(The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a Lee Enterprises newspaper.)