By Robert Kittle
While the federal government just approved the sale of powdered alcohol, the South Carolina Senate voted Thursday to ban it. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives.
Mark Phillips created powdered alcohol and formed a company, called Palcohol, to sell it. He enjoys outdoor activities and adult beverages but found it could be difficult to carry a bottle into the woods. “If they’re an outdoor enthusiast and they’re going hiking, backpacking, biking, kayaking, boating, anywhere where weight is an issue, having powdered alcohol is a lot lighter than liquid alcohol,” he says.
The powdered alcohol comes in a pouch and you add water. Right now, there are four varieties: rum, vodka, Cosmopolitan, and Powderita, a powdered margarita.
But while its portability is why it was created, Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, sees that as one of its main problems. He’s the main sponsor of the bill to ban powdered alcohol. “You can disguise it. You can have it in a Ziploc bag in your pocket. You can transfer it to folks very easily, and particularly to minors,” he says. “I predict it will be a very hot commodity on high school campuses, college campuses, where most of the folks there can’t legally purchase it.”
He says without his bill, which also legally defines powdered alcohol as alcohol, it could be sold anywhere in the state, not just places where alcohol is sold now. “In 2 or 3 years, if other states aren’t having a problem with it, you truly can regulate it by selling it in ABC stores or licensed alcohol establishments, then we can revisit it. But right now, I don’t think it’s appropriate to bring that stuff into the state,” he says.
The state Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, or DAODAS, also sees potential problems. Prevention coordinator Michelle Nienhius says mixing the correct amount of water with the drink could be a problem, and if someone isn’t paying attention, or doesn’t have an accurate way to measure the amount of water they’re supposed to add, they could end up drinking more alcohol than expected.
“There’s potential for people not to mix it at all and, because it’s a powder form, being able to snort it straight up through the nasal cavity,” she says. “Would that be a good idea? Probably not. Would that burn really bad? Yes, but we know that when people are intoxicated sometimes they don’t make the best decisions, so it is possible that that would happen because we have seen people who have used liquid alcohol that way.”
Phillips says he’s heard the same argument and dismisses it. “It really burns to snort it, really uncomfortable because it’s alcohol as it would if you sniffed liquid vodka. It would burn like crazy. There’s nothing pleasant about it,” he says.
He argues that powdered alcohol would be sold in the same places that alcohol is sold now, so it would not be any more accessible to minors. He says it’s no easier to sneak it into a football game or other sporting event because a Palcohol package is 4 inches by 6 inches, much larger than a standard 50ml bottle of liquid alcohol.
There’s also the argument that powdered alcohol could be used to spike someone’s drink. But Phillips says that’s not true because Palcohol doesn’t dissolve instantly. It would take more than a minute of stirring to dissolve the equivalent of one shot of liquid alcohol, while someone can use liquid alcohol to spike a drink in just a few seconds.
