[barend]

Dutch students develop powdered alcohol
Wed Jun 6, 9:56 AM ET

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch students have developed powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros (70 pence-1 pound).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-coloured and -flavoured drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

"We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks," 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.

Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour's drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.

"Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16," said project member Martyn van Nierop.

The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.

In Germany, alcopops -- sweet drinks containing alcohol and in powder form -- caused quite a stir when launched on to the market. Alcohol powder, classified as a flavouring, was sold in the United States three years ago.

The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they said.


article

thanks to the ever elusive reiner for this un.

this is a good idea. especially in the US where too many people are gunned down in their schools before experience the only true form of happiness available on this planet: getting shitfaced.

they wouldn't even let us keep our alcoholic ice tubes for summer a few years back, here. they said kids would be encouraged to consume alcohol. what a pile of shit, kids are constantly comming up and asking me to buy them alcohol, they're as encouraged as they're ever going to get.


honestly... fuck kids. they're actions always seem to get adults screwed over. some kid kills himself, suddenly a band is robbed of income from touring that town due to a ban. we don't get to have any cool stuff because the poor little childrens might get drunk...

did anyone stop to think that children might be better people if they spent half as much time being drunk as we do?

I bet this stuff gets banned before i'm even allowed to drink again.

[Slade]

If by better people you mean physically/mentally handicapped, maybe...

This is ridiculous and I hope the morons who invented this get beaten comatose for being so unethical. "Hey! Let's figure out a way to circumvent the laws to sell alcohol to even younger people!" How long before women are allowed to inject the stuff into their uteruses for their unborn babies? 16 isn't young enough over there? Sheesh.

In all seriousness, and ignoring the absurd slippery slope I mentioned, the reason that reasonable places don't allow young people to drink is because it severely impairs their mental and physical growth, and the younger they are, the more it permanently damages them. I mean, if they're dumb enough to disobey all common sense and the laws and find a way to get shitfaced, they kinda half deserve it, but at the same time, they're minors and we need to give them a little breathing room to make really fucking stupid mistakes because they in general suck at making good, mature decisions. Of course, there's no qualifying exam to be an adult, so many adults make terrible, immature decisions, too.

I think I'm on to something with those qualifying exams. Sorry about the crazed ramblings above!

[barend]

mmm...

so far the USA has a shown complete lunacy when it comes to children.

anti-discipline laws and intervention, parents get in trouble when they embarras their kids, they get charged with possesion of child pornagraphy if they take nude pictures of themself, etc.

honestly... they're not exactly bound for greatness at the currant pace... may as well get 'em tanked.

[Deepsycher]

What I see is, after they get to the legal age the buildup of urge to drink is like a lump sum.
To me it is as if they treat alcoholic beverages as precious as something like gold.
Then they go and drink themselves to death.

Some forget or don't care that anything in large quantities is not good maybe because they haven't tried it from a young age where they can judge for themselves on appropriate amounts. As for being just allowed to take in alcohol like many new people at an older age in the same place who probably haven't before they experiment which I see as understandable. Instead I see that judgement transferred onto copying how much other people drink to make themselves feel good in front other people.

I am not saying that everybody does that but for me I rather save my health to feel good in front of other people without the boast.

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 07 June 2007 - 01:35 AM

[Sailor Abbey]

What I see is, after they get to the legal age the buildup of urge to drink is like a lump sum.
To me it is as if they treat alcoholic beverages as precious as something like gold.
Then they go and drink themselves to death.

Thats called natural selection.

[Sailor Abbey]

I don’t think half as many kids would think it was so cool to drink if they were allowed to do it.

My family is full of good ol’ Irish Catholics, and I was allowed to drink at home since I were probably about 7. My uncle used to trick me into drinking Jim Beam by pouring it into an empty coke can. And do you know what happened? When I felt like drinking, I stayed home and drank wine with my mom listening to Janis Joplin and playing cards.

When all my friends were out getting trashed - paying adults to buy them beer, I was safe at home wondering what the big goddamn deal was about ‘partying.’ Drinking wasn’t a big deal back when I was 12 and its still not a big deal to this day. I probably drink 3 times a year.

I think agree with Barend. The problem is parenting.

[Deepsycher]

Thats called natural selection.

Ha! It looks like they were denied their natural selection at the natural age then it became artificial and drinking themselves to death was the result.

Parenting:

"May I try a bit of this."
"No! YOU! are! TOOO! young!"
"I only want to try a little bit for myself."
"Watch my lips, NO!!! When you are 21 and got a job then you can do what they hell you want! Now do as you are told and get to bed or I'll hit you!"

Typically the type of manipulative know it all tone and words I hear out on the streets and round the corner. Impolitically incorrect term I describe the quotes I hear in colour as "working class behaviour."

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 07 June 2007 - 09:22 PM

[Despondent]

There's a guy in my town that makes "pops" using marijuana. He gets around it somehow because there's no THC in them. Saw it on the news and everything. Also saw his van in traffic last week as we were in parallel lanes for ten minutes or so.

[Spoon Poetic]

If there's no THC, what exactly is the point?

[Despondent]

Umm, stupid customers? I don't know; but he's still in business so something must be working.

[Deepsycher]

Sounds no different to me than, here is a packet of cheese crisps without the cheese inside.

[reiner]

I'm just dissapointed I didn't know about this stuff ever being in the states. It's brilliant. I could mix alcohol into any number of different drinks, like a condensed everclear. *sigh*

I guess I'll just stick with my whiskeys and stouts. They'll never get banned like nicotine lollipops (marketing to kids my ass... not like I ate them).

[floppydisk]

I just have to say barend, I love the title for this article. So subtly funny.

[Heccubus]

I want that powder. The potential for mixed drinks is phenomenal...

This post has been edited by Heccubus: 20 June 2007 - 11:33 AM

[Bond]

C'mon, kids, enjoy your alcoholic Kool-Aid! It's fun in the Sun and by the pool! Just remember, kids, try not to walk near your pool, or you may well end up dead and shitfaced, just like Brian Jones!