Gerberry says powdered alcohol leads to abuse

March 18, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Senate began deliberations Tuesday on legislation that would ban the sale of powdered alcohol in the state, days after federal officials gave their OK to the product.

Reps. Ronald Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th, and Jim Buchy, a Greenville Republican, offered sponsor testimony on HB 14 before the chamber’s agriculture committee.

“I think young people will abuse it,” Gerberry said of the product, sold under the name Palcohol. “I think adults will abuse it.”

The House OK’d the legislation last session, but it stalled in the Senate. Gerberry and Buchy reintroduced the bill this session, and it passed the House last month.

Powdered alcohol is added to water to create an alcoholic beverage. HB 14 defines “powdered or crystalline alcohol” as “a product that is manufactured in powdered or crystalline form and that contains any amount of alcohol” and prohibits its sale for human consumption.

The product was OK’d for consumer sales last week by federal regulators. Gerberry said six states have already banned its sale, and two dozen others are considering comparable prohibitions.

“This is a new and untested substance in the marketplace,” Gerberry said. “It would be best for Ohio to allow this product to have experience in the marketplace elsewhere so that we know what the potential harm to individuals who use the substance.”