Posted on 04/20/2014 3:33:08 PM PDT by lbryce
Putting a can of beer in a brown paper bag is about to look like child's play. A new product that's somehow been approved by US regulators makes booze as discreet as a packet of sugar. It's called Palcohol, and it transforms a shot of vodka or rum into a pocketable pouch of powder. Tear it open, add some water, mix, and you've got hard liquor. Considering the age group that Palcohol is going to appeal to, however, the sweet, pre-mixed powders are probably going to be far more popular. To start off, the company plans to make margarita, mojito, cosmopolitan, and lemon drop flavors.
It's not hard to come up with ways kids are going to get in trouble with this one, but Palcohol offers a few suggestions on its website (cached) ranging from sneaking booze into places like movie theaters and college sporting events (where alcohol is banned) to sprinkling it directly onto food so teens don't even have to stomach the bitter alcohol flavor. Just in case you don't get the idea, the product's motto is "Take your Pal wherever you go!" The original site, which has now been replaced with a more responsible, updated version, even offered this gem:
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
um... is this still april 1???
Thanks.
Now, THAT is clever.
/johnny
You made me laugh, you made me laugh.
and they banned vapor shots...
The laws that put M4s and armed Hummers in the hands of 17 year olds and tell them they are not responsible enough for alcohol for 4 years would be a good start.
Anyone wish to tell me how it is logically possible that an 18yo can be trusted to drive fire and kill with an M1A1 tank and not be allowed in the enlisted club? Anyone wanna tell me why a 19 yo can have a couple combat tours under his belt and be endangered by a beer when he gets home?
Anyone wanna tell me why a 20 yo can get married, have a couple kids by that point, and be responsible enough for them but not responsible enough to buy a bottle at the bar?
Can’t wait to see the excuses.
Is that what the drunks are sniffing in the toilet stalls in bars?
Some people will do anything to get their demon booze!
“This sounds like a very very very bad idea”
No, the biased and alarmist reporting is a bad idea. This product though is a great idea.
Do you know what a godsend this is to backpackers? Easier to back than bottles or flasks, little if any waste to destroy or carry out, significantly lower weight - just filter some water. Even the ultralight crowd can get behind this innovation. Hell, they just need to work up some powdered coca-cola now and you can have a backpacker’s rum&coke a week into a PCT or AT hike.
As far as kids buying it and using it, there’s as much danger of that as them buying beer or everclear. I can’t conceive of this encouraging any significantly greater underage alcohol use or abuse, and given the significantly higher cost per ounce for cyclodextrin-encased alcohol I can’t see teenagers wasting money on this when they could get a cheap bottle of vodka instead.
As far as public intoxication and the like, seems like it would be a lot less surreptitious than the old standby of filling up a camelbak with everclear and lemonade before the ball game, or mixing something in a styrofoam cup from a fast-food joint before taking a walk.
In short, it’s likely to be an expensive boutique product for a very small subset of customers. It won’t significantly influence alcohol abuse or public intoxication. It will however make a hard day’s hike in rough country a little more enjoyable.
I dunno - Pat O'Brien's could have packets of just-add-water Hurricanes on local store shelves in a few months. And, since no alcohol is present in the powdered form, you can sell the stuff anywhere.
I wonder if it would make a better Molotov cocktail?
But only for the wimps who need a liquid crutch to enjoy the great outdoors...
Ping the SHTF bunch…this sounds like CURRENCY!!
Interesting response. We lived in Kansas including the years when we were raising teenagers. My daughter turned 18 in October of her senior year so she was the designated beer buyer, albeit 3/2 which, quite frankly, wasn’t most people’s idea of beer anyway. After one warning her father took away her driving privileges for several months.
Just because someone turns a certain age doesn’t mean that they will be more responsible that day than they were the day before. I have also seen plenty of guys and gals who are over 50 that drink wayyyy too much and then drive so age alone should not necessarily be a determination for level of responsibility IMO.
Just an issue filled with arguments pro and con. Choosing to be a responsible individual should come from within a person, not from government regulations.
What would a camp out be without a few s’mores and mojito’s after a hard day’s hike? :-)
“Choosing to be a responsible individual should come from within a person, not from government regulations.”
Totally agree. And really when you get down to it, that’s a lot of what my post boils down to. As for the post itself, I just have a REALLY hard time with laws that tell people responsible enough to serve their country and die that they are too immature to drink.
Which is why most people I know ignored them.
sneaking booze into places like movie theaters and college sporting events
That's what pocket shots of rum (esp 151) and buying a coke is for. :) I haven't done that in 15 years, but it worked like a charm when I wore a big winter coat.
The issue with kids will be them sneaking this stuff into high school, especially if there's no major smell like there would be with vodka or rum.
It's the same reason why I saw a lot more "bear" aka Kodiak chew than I saw Malboros smoked on school grounds back in the day.
And now with vaping pens, the smell isn't an issue anymore as well.
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