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Pa. Liquor Control Board Says No Way To Powdered Alcohol Sales in Commonwealth

By Steve Tawa

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- While federal regulators have approved the sale of powdered alcohol, being marked as "Palcohol," it won't be coming anytime soon to stores run by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

The PLCB's Stacy Kriedeman says the state store system will not put powdered alcohol products, equally subject to state regulations, on its shelves.

"The form that it takes makes it incredibly easy to not only transport but to conceal," she notes.  "It would be so easy to just open a packet, sprinkle it on someone's food or put it in somebody's drink without them being aware that it was happening."

State senator Shirley Kitchen (D-Phila.) has introduced legislation that would ban both the sale and consumption of powdered alcohol in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, prohibiting it from being brought in from out of state.

"It is not a good substitute for liquid alcohol," Kitchen said today.  She says it could get into the wrong hands, acquired by minors, and abused.

"It's too easy for an underaged drinker to be able to get hold of, and you can't monitor it," she adds.

The maker of powered alcohol says the same rules apply for buying Palcohol: you must be 21 or older.  It also says snorting it would go down like snorting black pepper, and it would not be easy to spike a drink, because of the length of time it takes to dissolve.

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