By Maria DeVito
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — While powered alcohol was approved for sale by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau yesterday, lawmakers in Ohio are trying to outlaw it.
The federal agency had approved the product — brand name Palcohol — for sale last spring but rescinded the approval saying it had been made in error.
Bureau spokesman Tom Hogue said the issues were resolved and that four varieties of Palcohol, which when mixed with water creates an alcoholic drink, were approved. Hogue noted that states also can regulate alcohol sales within their borders.
Concerns have included abuse by minors and whether Palcohol’s light weight would make it easy to sneak alcohol into public events.
Ohio lawmakers want to prohibit Palcohol from ever appearing on shelves. State Reps. Ronald Gerberry, D-Austintown, and Jim Buchy, R-Greenville, introduced legislation at the end of January to ban it.
The bill passed the Ohio House in February and is now pending in the Senate Agriculture Committee, where the chairman, Sen. Cliff Hite, R-Findlay, said he supports the bill and plans to start hearings soon.
“I’m worried about it causing a lot more problems than we need,” he said.
Last session, the House passed a bill with identical language, but it didn’t clear the Senate.
Ohio isn’t alone in trying to ban the substance.
Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont have already banned it. Colorado advanced legislation last month temporarily halting the sale of powdered alcohol.
Lawmakers in Utah, Iowa and Rhode Island are in the process of banning it as well, and a Pennsylvania senator introduced legislation on Monday that would ban it.
Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.
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©2015 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)