Tag Archives: Alcohol Justice

08/4/20

The Future of Powdered Alcohol

© tashatuvango | stockfresh.com

Have you ever heard of powered alcohol? Did you know a powered alcohol product called Palcohol was approved for sale in the U.S. in April of 2014? Within a couple of weeks of approval, the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) recalled the approval of seven Palcohol labels, saying they were issued in error. According to Mark Phillips, the creator of Palcohol, the original label wording was edgy, “and everything went nuts” when their unfinished website was revealed. On March 11, 2015, TTB finally approved four Palcohol labels, permitting the product to be sold, but the current Palcohol website says it won’t come to market until late 2021, at the earliest.

In a video on the current Palcohol website, Phillips said because they weren’t prepared with the proper message about Palcohol, “People imagined how it would be used.” Reports said it would be easier to get drunk by snorting it; easier to secret sneak alcohol into places; easier to spike a drink; and easier for kids to get ahold of it. Phillips said, “All of those statements couldn’t be further from the truth.” The so-called last straw, was Senator Charles Schumer’s call to ban Palcohol, which he supported by drafting a bill. The legislation has yet to make it to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

Mark Phillips claimed Schumer was completely ignorant about the truth of Palcohol. According to Phillips, Schumer’s letter to the FDA and his press conference were so riddled with inaccuracies and irresponsible statements, he just had to “set the record straight.” He then spent another fifteen minutes attempting to do just that. In conclusion, he said Palcohol is a revolutionary product with so many positive uses for consumers and businesses: “Why would anyone want to ban powered alcohol with all the benefits to society?” Let’s see.

There was a May 2014 report that “Schumer Wants FDA to Halt Approval of Palcohol.”  Senator Schumer called Palcohol “the Kool-Aid of teen binge drinking.” The Albany County Sheriff said he visited the Palcohol website before it was revised and saw quotes from Phillips indicating it could be snorted. He reportedly saw pictures under the Palcohol name where it was cut into lines like cocaine. There was also a picture of doughnuts where people were pouring a Palcohol pouch on the doughnuts.

There was a screen shot taken from the initial “edgy” website suggesting you could take Palcohol to a concert to have a mixed drink at a fraction of the cost. If you were a college football fan, it suggested you could “Bring Palcohol in and enjoy the game.” There were several different food suggestions, and a reminder to add Palcohol AFTER the dish is cooked as the alcohol would burn off if you cook with it. With regard to snorting Palcohol, they cautioned to be careful. “You’ll get drunk almost instantly because the alcohol will be absorbed so quickly in your nose.”

When I wrote “Hype Over Powered Alcohol” five years ago, I described how someone writing for Vice related how he made his own powered alcohol and sprinkled it on pizza. Then he snorted it and lit it on fire. He said powered alcohol, at least his 192-proof grain alcohol version, burned like napalm.

The National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA) has a report of a white paper on its site, “Powered Alcohol: An Encapsulation.”  The origins of powered alcohol dated back to the 19th century, when William Clotwoethy was issued a patent to be used in the food industry. In 1964, Harold Bode filed a patent for an “alcoholic dry beverage powder.” In 1976 General Foods was granted a patent for an “alcohol-containing dextrin powder” that could be used in food and as “a high ethanol-containing powder” that could be used as a base for alcoholic drinks.

The NABCA noted the temporary approval of Palcohol in 2014 began a wave of concern among lawmakers such as Charles Schumer. While there is no current federal legislation banning powered alcohol, many states have done so. The Alcohol Justice website lists 34 states that ban powered alcohol, 12 with no legislation (Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida) and three (Arizona, Colorado and Texas) that allow powered alcohol. The NABCA also described some potential public health and safety risks of using powered alcohol. It cited the American Medical Association’s June 2016 press release calling for a ban on powered alcohol, because it has “the potential to cause serious harm to minors.” Further, the NABCA noted the possibility that powered alcohol could be snorted and its easy concealment means it could be given to an unsuspecting person.

There was a 2016 study of the awareness and likelihood of college students using powered alcohol published in The American Journal on Addictions. 1,841 undergraduate students were asked if they had heard of powered alcohol or Palcohol. Only 16.4% had previously heard of powered alcohol. Those who had not heard of it were provided with the following description of powered alcohol:

Powdered alcohol is freeze-dried alcohol (rum or vodka), in a powdered form packaged in individual serving size packets. One packet added to 6 ounces of liquid is equal in potency to a standard mixed-drink. It is sold under the brand name “Palcohol.”

When asked if powered alcohol should be legal in their state, 13.8% said “definitely no,” 25.9% indicated “no,” 40.4% said “possibly,” 13.7% said “yes,” and only 6.1% responded “definitely yes.” Nearly 25% said they were likely to use it if/when it became available. They were also asked about their current alcohol use, and then the likelihood of them using powered alcohol (Palcohol) before they were of legal age or of their friends using it. They were asked whether or not they would try various ways of ingesting powered alcohol, such as mixing it with alcohol, not water; sneaking it into a place where it was prohibited (like a football game); snorting it; smoking it; eating it. Only 16.4% of students had heard of powered alcohol before. 23.3% said they were “extremely likely” or “likely” to try it; and 62.2% said they would misuse it.

Specifically, these participants who intended to use powdered alcohol indicated being “likely” or “extremely likely” to misuse in the following ways: use the product although underage (37.2%), sneak the product into restricted places (22.9%), mix the product with alcohol instead of water (16.1%), eat the powdered alcohol (i.e., sprinkle on food; 8.6%), snort the powdered alcohol (3.9%), and smoke the product (1.6%).

The authors said it was logical to predict that with professional marketing, social media, and peer influence, actual use of powered alcohol among college students would exceed 25%. However, a more alarming issue was that among college students indicating the likelihood of using powered alcohol, over 60% indicated they would misuse it in some way. Most said they would misuse it by sneaking the product into restrictive venues. “Not surprisingly, likelihood to use and misuse powdered alcohol was also highly correlated with hazardous drinking, which indicates that those most likely to use powdered alcohol are also at high risk for experiencing alcohol-related problems.”

The creator of Palcohol, Mark Phillips, seems to have failed to put the record straight on powered alcohol. The issues that he dismissed as being made up and far from the truth seem to have been central concerns of the American Medical Association and acknowledged as risks by the NABCA, the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association. Senator Charles Schumer also seems to have been less ignorant about the dangers of powdered alcohol than Phillips thought he was. And Schumer’s rhetorical statement of Palcohol being “the Kool-Aid of teen binge drinking” was supported by the 2016 study, “Powered Alcohol: Awareness and Likelihood of Use Among a Sample of College Students;” at least among teen-aged college students.

Can you imagine a future without Palcohol? We can hope for one, as the potential risks seem to outweigh the so-called benefits.

06/28/16

Down for the Count?

© Lesik Aleksandr | 123rf.com

© Lesik Aleksandr | 123rf.com

Approved for sale over one year ago, Palcohol may never make it to the shelves of retail stores for sale. Palcohol is a powdered alcohol product that puts the equivalent of one ounce of alcohol in a vacuum-sealed packet. Mix it with about five ounces of water, and voila! Instant cocktail! Mark Phillips, the creator of Palcohol, calls it “a revolutionary product.” He envisions it not only as a recreational beverage, but as also having industrial applications in products like windshield wiper fluid. And it could have military and medical applications. Unfortunately, it seems that unintentionally the makers of Palcohol may have been their own worst enemy.

The company’s website originally described Palcohol as a solution for problems like the overpriced drinks at stadium events. Supposedly, the site’s content was not meant for public viewing; the website was still in process. Then in April of 2014, U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) announced the approval of Palcohol. The result was a firestorm with a literal political backlash when people discovered the not-quite-ready website. The initial talking points were acknowledged by Phillips to have been “edgy” and “questionable.” Gawker quoted several of these now removed talking points:

What’s worse than going to a concert, sporting event, etc. and having to pay $10, $15, $20 for a mixed drink with tax and tip. Are you kidding me?! Take Palcohol into the venue and enjoy a mixed drink for a fraction of the cost.

We’ve been talking about drinks so far. But we have found adding Palcohol to food is so much fun. Sprinkle Palcohol on almost any dish and give it an extra kick.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room … snorting Palcohol. Yes, you can snort it. And you’ll get drunk almost instantly because the alcohol will be absorbed so quickly in your nose. Good idea? No. It will mess you up. Use Palcohol responsibly.

Almost immediately, Phillips and his company, Lipsmark LLC, began backpedaling. Eater quoted Phillips as saying the company added “volume to the powder so that it would take more than a half of a cup of powder to get the equivalent of one drink up your nose.” The approval was quickly pulled for packaging discrepancies. In March of 2015 the TTB again approved Palcohol, but Senator Charles Schumer introduced legislation to make the production, sale and possession of powdered alcohol illegal. He also called on the FDA to immediately step in and halt the sale of Palcohol. Schumer said:

Underage alcohol abuse is already an epidemic with tragic consequences. A product like Palcohol would just exacerbate that scourge, which is why we must stop it. Support for this new amendment is the only way to make it illegal to produce or sell this Kool-Aid for underage binge drinking.

The Palcohol website touts its product as “safer than liquid alcohol.” Embedded there is a 16-minute YouTube video of Mark Phillips on “The Truth About Palcohol.” Among the potential benefits of Palcohol he described was how it could be used as an emergency fuel source—in other words, it’s flammable. Hotels in Hawaii and airlines were reportedly interested as it could save shipping and fuel costs, as Palcohol was only 1/3 the weight of regular alcohol. I could see the benefit in shipping alcohol to Hawaii, but won’t airlines have to carry water to hydrate the Palcohol on flights? Doesn’t that negate the weight savings? Claiming that Palcohol could help reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions—by saving fuel costs over shipping liquid alcohol—seemed a bit of a stretch. The website also says:

A proposed ban of powdered alcohol … is denying millions of responsible adults and hundreds of businesses a chance to use this legal, safe and revolutionary new product that has applications in medicine, energy, hospitality, the military, manufacturing, etc. as well as reducing the carbon footprint by being so much lighter to ship than liquid alcohol.

Legislators who are working to make Palcohol illegal are made out to be the villains. “The legislature is there to protect the citizen’s right to choose and support innovative business ideas, not to impose [their] values on them.” Weren’t the initial concerns for Palcohol generated from their own “edgy” copy on a not-ready-for-prime-time website? And don’t individual states have the right to ban products they don’t want to be sold in their states? In the video, Phillips said: “We need to act now before ignorance determines our future.”

However, it doesn’t seem that state legislators around the country are as ignorant of Palcohol as Phillips would like. Alcohol Justice reported on PR Newswire that 31 states have complete bans on powered alcohol, with the California Assembly unanimously passing a bill (AB 1554) to do the same. A companion bill unanimously passed the state Senate in March of 2016. Assembly member Jacqui Irwin, author of AB 1554, noted the overwhelming bi-partisan support behind the ban. She said:

Powdered alcohol is a dangerous product that has been designed and marketed as a way to make super-charged cocktails on the go. Binge drinking and alcohol related deaths are already a huge problem in California and adding powdered alcohol to the mix is a recipe for disaster.

Bruce Livingston, the CEO of Alcohol Justice, said they were grateful to the states that placed public health and safety above commerce. He encouraged elected leaders in states that have not yet taken action to do so. “We continue to agree with New York Senator Chuck Schumer who said Palcohol will become the ‘Kool-Aid’ of teenage binge drinking and will lead to acute alcohol poisoning and death.” A graphic on the Alcohol Justice website indicated that as of june 7, 2016, 32 states had banned powered alcohol. Ten states, including California, Pennsylvania and New York, have pending legislation to ban powered alcohol. Only three states allow powered alcohol: Colorado, Arizona and Texas.

Then on June 14, 2016, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced they were adopting a policy supporting the federal and state laws banning powered alcohol in the U.S. Jesse Ehrenfield, MD, an AMA board member said:

Given the variety of flavors that could be enticing to youth and concerns that the final alcohol concentration could be much greater than intended by the manufacturer, we believe that powdered alcohol has the potential to cause serious harm to minors and should be banned. . . . We urge states and the federal government to prevent powdered alcohol from being manufactured, distributed, imported and sold in the U.S.

Mark Phillips told Medscape Medical News that he thought the AMA’s decision was irresponsible. He said: “If the AMA would have taken the time to learn about the product, they would have realized that Palcohol is safer than liquid alcohol.” Reporting for Medscape, Robert Lowes said the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health weighed Phillips’ arguments for Palcohol and still decided to support the ban: “”The harms that could arise from mixing powdered alcohol with liquid alcohol or even with energy drinks raises the potential for dangerous patterns of use.”

Palcohol is not down for the count just yet. Phillips and Lipsmark LLC are working hard to reverse the legislative bans and present Palcohol as an eco-friendly, potentially life-saving product that happens to be flammable and could be used by the military for “applications from transport fuel to fuel in a soldier’s backpack.” Is that military product going to be powered ethyl alcohol like recreational Palcohol? If it is, I wonder what the alcohol content will be? Do we want to send troops into combat situations with something they could potentially get drunk on? For more on powered alcohol see, “Hype over Powered Alcohol.”