Drinks FCKD UP still selling near schools

Photo Marie-Christine Noël
In this convenience store in Ste-Thérèse near the Cégep Lionel-Groulx, cans of FCKD UP were on sale at 2 for$ 7.

Marie-Christine Noël

Friday, 23 march, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Friday, 23 march, 2018 01:00

Look at this article

Three weeks after the death of a teenage girl of 14 years of age who have consumed alcoholic beverages, sweet FCKD UP, these products are still on the shelves of convenience stores located near secondary schools and cegeps.

The fate of Athena Gervais, found deceased in a creek behind his high school in Laval on the 1st of march, has prompted the manufacturer to discontinue the production of its controversial drink. But many merchants have the intent to sell their stock, found the digital team in our Office of investigation.

This is exactly the instruction that said to have received the cashier of a convenience store located near the Cégep Lionel-Groulx, in Sainte-Thérèse.

Near the school of Athena

“The representative told me that we could continue to liquidate. It left me a lot, just there on the shelves. It makes me a thirty cans. It is little, ” explained the used in our passage.

At the stroke of a probe conducted with a hidden camera, we were able to buy a can in a convenience store is 500 m from the School, Poly-Jeunesse, where was studying Athena Gervais.

It has been possible to find drinks FCKD UP near secondary schools, in both Montreal and Laval, as well as on the North Shore and the South Shore.

Convenience stores in Sainte-Thérèse, Laval and Longueuil, the shelves were filled to their maximum capacity with posters “2 for $ 7”, clearly visible.

It is in a business of Montreal, next to a private college, that it was necessary to look any longer before dropping to the small refrigerator placed next to the entrance door.

Until June ?

“You will be able to buy until June,” said the cashier, in reference to the intention of Quebec to change the law before the summer to prohibit the sale of sugary drinks-alcoholic beverages in convenience stores and grocery stores.

Despite calls for common sense launched by Quebec and Ottawa, there is nothing to prevent at the current time the sale of the beverage FCKD UP, a can contains the equivalent alcohol to four glasses of wine.

“We work in the logic of pure profit, without concern for social consequences or the health of people that is intended. It demonstrates a lack of sensitivity and a social conscience somewhat elastic, ” says Hubert Sacy of Éduc Alcohol.

Of the students surveyed at the end of the school day on Tuesday in Longueuil all have said that they had consumed sugar-sweetened beverages-alcoholic. A student of 15 years said that he “lost consciousness after two cans of Four Loko,” an alcoholic beverage which has been withdrawn from the market and is similar to the FCKD UP.

Other young people have admitted that it was easy to get this kind of drink.

“It’s been a month that I drank it [FCKD UP], lance a 14 year-old girl. I felt a little fucked up […] All my friends drink it. “

Ottawa was launched in the beginning of the week a 45-day consultation to restrict the size and alcohol content of the drinks sugary drinks.

Cry from the heart

In Québec, the minister responsible for the public Health, Lucie Charlebois, launched on march 5, a cry of the heart for owners of convenience stores to be removed as soon as possible tablets this kind of product.

In an interview on march 5, Aldo Geloso, president of the company which produced the drink FCKD UP, was not able to say how many cans were still at retailers, and especially how long it would take for the withdraw of the tablets.

Easily available

Saint-Jérôme

700 m from the École polyvalente Saint-Jérôme

►Convenience store Market popular

• Ten cans available

Sainte-Thérèse

1.5 km from Collège Lionel-Groulx

►Convenience store 149

• Thirty cans available

Laval

To 500 m of the École Poly-Jeunesse, where Athena Gervais was studying

► Convenience Store B A B

• Fifteen cans available

Montreal

300 m from the College Ville-Marie, a private school of secondary education

►Convenience Store Clear

• 7 cans available in a small fridge near the entrance

Longueuil

In front of the Cégep Édouard-Montpetit and at 600 m from the École secondaire Jacques-Rousseau

►Convenience store in the campus

• Twenty cans available

They fear financial losses

Retailers are afraid to wipe to significant financial losses if they get rid of their stock of FCKD UP before selling it.

“I have suggested to remove the tablets and take measures to remove the product as soon as possible, stresses Yves Servais, general manager of the merchants Association convenience stores and grocers in Quebec. To help, it would be necessary that their stock is credited. “

According to him, members would not have been credited during the withdrawal from the market of sugar-sweetened beverages-alcoholic Four Loko in December and do not want to live the situation a second time.

“There are some who have 1400 $ to 2500 $ of inventory. It’s a lot “, adds Mr. Servais.

“Carter “

Since the last few weeks, Yves Servais is trying to educate its members.

“I ask them to increase the rigor during a sale. For example, “carter” more often than the clients, ” he explains.

The boss of Éduc Alcohol is shown to be more alarmist and believes that all of these alcoholic drinks-sugary are “time bombs” for young people.

“Four months ago, I had said that it was not necessary to wait for a death before they act. Unfortunately, we had to wait for it, ” laments M. Ycas.