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Powdered Alcohol Approved By Feds, Banned By States

Posted by timothy on from the nanny-states-plural dept.

StikyPad writes Powdered alcohol was approved for sale by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, but that hasn't stopped several states from introducing their own legislation to ban the substance, including Alaska, Louisiana, South Carolina, Vermont, New York, Virginia, Ohio, and Iowa. The utility of powdered alcohol is said to be in weight reduction, particularly for transport on foot when hiking and camping, but lawmakers cite fears about the potential of abuse by minors and spiked drinks.

6 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Becasue... the children! by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 3, Informative

    I for one am sick of the fucking children. No, its not good enough that you need to be a certain age to purchase this stuff. Nope. Must deny it to the legal adults becuase little Johnny just might snap some up while nobody is looking.

    NANNIES

    1. Re:Becasue... the children! by mcl630 · · Score: 3, Informative

      They weren't actually stories of people doing those stupid things, the maker (Palcohol) suggested doing those things on the website:

      http://www.theverge.com/2014/4...

    2. Re:Becasue... the children! by cptdondo · · Score: 3, Informative

      You don't backpack much, do you? Carrying a liter of alcohol in a backpack is a huge weight, no matter what condition you're in. The less weight you have, the more fun it is.

      And yes, most of use use some sort of poowdered sports drink, often to hide the taste of the water we get from streams and lakes, even after filtering.

      As a backpacker I really support this. There's nothing like sitting arond dinner at night, nad having a drink under the stars.

    3. Re:Becasue... the children! by Jon_S · · Score: 3, Informative

      You carry the same amount of alcohol whether you carry the dehydrated stuff or a bottle of grain alcohol. Actually, the dehydrated stuff is heavier since you also are carrying the polysaccharide to which the alcohol is adsorbed.

      If you want to get drunk in the woods, you need the millions of molecules of C2H5OH which weighs the same no matter if you bring it in pure (well, the 95% azeotrope probably) or adsorbed to sugar.

  2. Re:Following instructions? by ralphsiegler · · Score: 4, Informative

    it's just a polysaccharide with alcohol in it, the particular one they use can absorb 60% its weight in alcohol. You're still going to only get the alcohol of a standard drink whether you eat the starchy stuff straight up or put it in a quart of water.

  3. Re:Following instructions? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Informative

    The stomach is very bad at absorbing, due to the fairly smooth and acid-proof lining, but small molecules can slip through. Like ethanol or water.