Connecticut Votes to Ban Powdered Alcohol, Citing Incidents of Snorting

On Monday afternoon, the Connecticut House of Represenatives voted en masse to ban the sale of powered alcohol.

In March, the federal government approved the sale of powered alcohol, but a number of states have already moved to ban it, including South Carolina, Virginia and Louisinia.

In Connecticut, the House was moved to ban the liquor alternative after Reps. Pamela Staneski and Dan Carter brought up issues of teenage safety and snorting.

"They're snorting it. Why? Because inhaling alcohol gets them to the effect they want, which is to be in a drunken stupor," Staneski said, according to the Hartford Courant. "They wind up with major nose-bleeds and headaches."

Carter went after Palcohol, the company who is most closely associated with the product, saying "Palcohol [could] really represent a threat to kids...It's easy for kids to transport it to school. We've heard testimony that kids can snort it, and we don't know what the long-term effects of that will be.''

Palcohol offered this reply to the Courant:

Listen, people can snort black pepper....so do we ban it? No, just because a few goofballs use a product irresponsibly doesn't mean you ban it. But even the goofballs 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?

From here, the bill will travel to Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy for a final signature, effectively ending powdered alcohol in Connecticut before it could begin.