File #: Res 0610-2006    Version: * Name: Denouncing the Redux Beverage Company for producing, advertising, and distributing the “Cocaine” energy drink.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Consumer Affairs
On agenda: 11/15/2006
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution denouncing the Redux Beverage Company for producing, advertising, and distributing the “Cocaine” energy drink and calling for all local establishments to refuse to carry or sell “Cocaine” energy drink.
Sponsors: James Sanders, Jr., Annabel Palma, Charles Barron, Inez E. Dickens, Lewis A. Fidler, Helen D. Foster, Vincent J. Gentile, Sara M. Gonzalez, Letitia James, G. Oliver Koppell, John C. Liu, Darlene Mealy, Michael C. Nelson, Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., Larry B. Seabrook, Albert Vann, David I. Weprin, Thomas White, Jr., Peter F. Vallone, Jr., James S. Oddo
Council Member Sponsors: 20
Date Ver.Prime SponsorAction ByActionResultAction DetailsMeeting DetailsMultimedia
12/31/2009*James Sanders, Jr. City Council Filed (End of Session)  Action details Meeting details Not available
11/15/2006*James Sanders, Jr. City Council Referred to Comm by Council  Action details Meeting details Not available
11/15/2006*James Sanders, Jr. City Council Introduced by Council  Action details Meeting details Not available

Res. No. 610

 

Resolution denouncing the Redux Beverage Company for producing, advertising, and distributing the “Cocaine” energy drink and calling for all local establishments to refuse to carry or sell “Cocaine” energy drink.

 

By Council Members Sanders Jr. and Palma and Council Members Barron, Dickens, Fidler, Foster, Gentile, Gonzalez, James, Koppell, Liu, Mealy, Nelson, Recchia, Seabrook, Vann, Weprin, White Jr., Vallone Jr. and Oddo

 

 

Whereas, Redux Beverage Company alleges that its new energy drink “Cocaine” provides an initial “high” within the first five minutes, followed by a caffeine rush for approximately fifteen minutes later with the effects lasting five hours; and

Whereas, The advertisement of a legal “cocaine”-like stimulant, deliberately referencing the drug cocaine’s dangerous effects, regardless of the comparison’s accuracy, is reprehensible and grievously irresponsible; and

Whereas, Redux Beverages, rejecting suggestions that “Cocaine” contains any illicit ingredients, attributes the energy drink’s intense effects to a questionably healthy concentration of sugar and 280 milligrams of caffeine; and

Whereas, Complaints from some consumers report that the “Cocaine” energy drink gave them an uncomfortable, tight, tingling sensation in their chests after consumption, including numbing of the mouth and throat; and

Whereas, “Cocaine’s” marketing strategy is clearly to sell the beverage by drawing comparisons to the infamous, malignant, life and community-destroying drug that inspired the product; and

Whereas, Every day, cocaine drug use is continuing to ruin lives, promoting burglaries and robberies, wrenching families apart, leading to youth incarceration or death, and costing the City millions of dollars in rehabilitation costs and lost work hours; and

Whereas, Communities of color continue to be plagued by disproportionately high rates of incarceration because of the scourge of drug abuse, and, according to a report by the New York Civil Liberties Union, 94% of New York State drug-related prison sentences are imposed upon blacks and Hispanics, who only constitute 31% of the State’s population; and

Whereas, These statistics are just one example of the many repercussions of the continuing plague of drug abuse on our City’s populations and underscore the unquestionable inappropriateness of manipulating this struggle for the sake of a poorly-conceived marketing gimmick; and

Whereas, While members of the New York City Council have called upon Redux Beverage Company to immediately cease all production and sales of “Cocaine,” the company has declined to cooperate; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York denounces the Redux Beverage Company for producing, advertising, and distributing the “Cocaine” energy drink and calls for all local establishments to refuse to carry or sell “Cocaine” energy drink.

 

BRS

LS#1866

10/5/06