What You Need to Know About Palcohol

Parents, as if you didn't have enough things to worry about...add this to the list.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has approved the sale of Palcohol, or powdered alcohol, and it could be available as soon as this summer.

While I, as a responsible adult, think it sounds like an interesting and useful product, it seems like a potentially terrible idea for the less responsible people of the world...like the binge-drinking, party-loving college student I used to be...or high schoolers.

First things first. Palcohol is the brand name of this stuff, for now. It was created to make it easier to transport liquor when doing activities like camping or hiking.

The company has 5 'flavors' planned: vodka, rum, Cosmopolitan, Powderita (margarita), and Lemon Drop. Each would be sold in pouches, which when mixed with 6 ounces of water (or a mixer), would create a standard cocktail, with the same alcoholic content as the traditional liquid drinks.

As it is liquor, it would only sold in places where liquor is sold, and only to people of legal drinking age.

According to the website, each pouch would be about 80 calories. No word yet on how much it would cost.

The problem?

Of course, everyone's first thought is that teens or young adults are all going to snort this stuff. I tend to agree.

Palcohol has addressed this thought on their website, saying, '[People} won't snort Palcohol due to the pain the alcohol would cause. It really burns. Imagine sniffing liquid vodka. Second, it's impractical. It takes approximately 60 minutes to snort the equivalent of one shot of vodka. Why would anyone do that when they can do a shot of liquid vodka in two seconds?'

I suppose that's true, but...kids are dumb decision-makers and brilliantly creative at the same time. I was a dumb kid once, and while I probably wouldn't have snorted this stuff, I would have thought about mixing it with something like Pixy Stix candy to make it easier to just eat directly.

They also say they don't believe it would be easier to sneak the powdered alcohol into venues, or that it would make it easier to spike someone's drink. In that instance, I don't disagree with them, because if someone wants to sneak liquid booze in someplace now, they usually find a way to do it. I suppose it would be marginally easier to sneak in a bag of powder than a tiny bottle.

As for the theory that this will make it easier to spike someone's drink, the good news is that the powder doesn't dissolve immediately, and you can TASTE it if it's in your drink. It unfortunately seems that scumbags who spike drinks now already have a better product at their disposal.

Unfortunately, as with most things like this, it's probably perfectly fine if used responsibly...but there will always be people that abuse it and ruin it for everyone else.