Alcoholic beverages, energy drinks: éduc’alcool promotes a withdrawal of the sale

File Photo, Matthew Charest

QMI agency

Saturday, 3 march 2018 15:17

UPDATE
Saturday, march 3, 2018 15:20

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The organization éduc’alcool is proposing to implement a “precautionary principle” by temporarily withdrawing the sale of alcoholic beverages, energy drinks such as FCKD UP in the wake of the death of a teenage girl in Laval.

• READ ALSO: Couche-Tard to withdraw from its shelves the alcoholic drink “FCKD UP”

On Wednesday, the body of Athena Gervais, a 14-year-old, was found behind the school, Poly-Jeunesse in Laval. An autopsy report is preliminary and testimonies of her friends suggested that she had drunk a significant quantity of beverage FCKD UP, before a fall and from falling in a stream, The Newspaper reported.

“Six months ago, it has already been a pre-caution against these drinks-there”, lamented the director general of éduc’alcool, Hubert Sacy, in an interview with the QMI Agency.

According to him, the federal and provincial governments should be asked about the appropriateness of allowing the sale and promotion of energy drinks with high alcohol content.

The drink FCKD UP, that title to 11.9 % alcohol by volume, contains the equivalent of four glasses of alcohol per can of 568 ml, in addition to a significant amount of sugar and stimulants, including guarana, banned in the United States. Someone who drinks two cans has thus reached the stage of hazardous drinking, eight glasses, has underlined M. Ycas.

Not for the golden age

The leader denounces the marketing of these drinks is aimed to young consumers. “It means that it is not directed to the people of the golden age. […] It is not prohibitionist, but when it is a question of young people, it is necessary to pay attention”, he argued.

Friday, Couche-Tard announced the withdrawal of the beverages FCKD UP its tablets. The grocer Metro had withdrawn from its shelves last fall.

The producer of the FCKD UP, the group Geloso, has also hinted, in a press release that it is prepared to consider the withdrawal of this type of product, “together with the other producers”.

“These are the retailers who are taking the initiative to remove these beverages,” said Mr. Ycas, which reminds us that this would be rather that the government put forward the principle of caution in ordering their removal, the time to evaluate these products.