The Las Vegas manufacturer of a white-powdered energy drink mix called Blow has stopped selling the product in Illinois.
The move comes just days after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demanded that marketing and sales of the white powdered energy drink immediately cease.
"This is a blatant promotion of drug culture and addiction," Madigan said last week while citing her concern that the product glamorizes the drug culture for children.
On Friday, Blow creator Logan Gola of Kingpin Concepts, Inc. didn'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 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. "
In the letter to Kingpin Concepts, the attorney general's office noted that the product is packaged in "bricks,' and calls Blow a "misbranded and unapproved drug" under state law and calls its comparison to illicit drugs a deceptive practice.
"In this case, we think Blow is marketed as a look-alike drug, which constitutes a deceptive practice," Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said, adding that the product is marketed to "entice" minors to try illegal drugs, which is an unfair practice under the state's fraud statute.
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.
