Is Four Loko to Blame for Halloween Hospitalizations?

(Nov. 1) -- Alcohol and caffeine don't mix, a number of college students discovered last month, ending up in the hospital after binging on Four Loko, an increasingly popular alcoholic energy drink. Is the stuff to blame for another health scare this Halloween as well?

Several students at Skidmore College in upstate New York were sent to the emergency room Saturday night during the school's annual "Moorebid Ball" Halloween bash after drinking excessively, keeping in line with the recent surge of alcohol-related hospitalizations involving college undergraduates in October.

Administrators at the private liberal arts college, which enrolls approximately 2,500 students, shut down the party early after about nine students received emergency care for drinking, a college official told Fox 23 News.

Four Loko wasn't specifically cited by police, but student-run publications were all about the beverage in their coverage leading up to the event, as well as the overall propensity for binge drinking. As an article published in Skidmore News put it: "Between The Hunt [a scavenger-hunt-like Skidmore tradition] last weekend and the upcoming Moorebid Ball this weekend, there has been and will certainly be a good amount of students enjoying alcoholic beverages, and Four Lokos will likely make an appearance," Skidmore News reporter Adam Cohen wrote Friday.

A post on SkidmoreUnofficial.com, a student-run news site unaffiliated with the college, echoed Cohen's statement.

"Freshmen, don't get so drunk that you pass out before or during Moorebid," the site's executive editor wrote Thursday. "You worked really hard on your Slutty Witch/Antoine Dobson costume and you want to make sure everyone sees it before you soil it with dinner."

Now that these alcohol predictions are confirmed, students are raising questions about how the school will respond to the Saturday hospitalizations.

"The hospitalizations, all obviously alcohol related, are a politically tricky subject and the College's handling of the night's events is precarious," SkidmoreUnofficial's executive editor wrote in a post earlier this morning. "I'll keep my mouth shut for now but it will be interesting to see exactly how the rest of the year's dances are handled. Repercussions are doubtlessly forthcoming (and most likely ineffective)."

Efforts to curb alcohol consumption among students appear more important than ever in light of a recent study citing alcohol as the "most harmful" in a list of 20 drugs that includes both crack and heroin.

In the study, a panel of experts developed a new scale to evaluate the harm of various drugs on users and others and gave alcohol a score of 72 out of 100, making it nearly three times as harmful overall as cocaine or tobacco, the panelists reported.

"Aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy," the panelists wrote on The Lancet's website Monday, observing that the rankings confirm other studies on the subject.

Skidmore students hope that Moorebid Ball won't become one of these targets. "I was a little upset [about the ball ending early]," Skidmore freshman Madi Ellis told Fox reporters. "I'm a freshman and it was my first Moorebid. It was really fun for the time I was there. I hope next year it's not as bad."

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