Ryan Ray
A bill to prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol — known as Palcohol — before it has even arrived in Florida retailers passed another test in the Senate on Thursday. The ban was unanimously approved the Rules Committee.
Sen. Gwen Margolis’ SB 998 now awaits a vote by the full Senate.
Brandon Sen. Tom Lee spoke for many casual observers as well as his colleagues when he asked Margolis — like Lee, a former Senate president — whether there was a pressing reason she “has chosen to ban the product rather than regulate it just like other alcohol products.”
Margolis replied that the bill passed quickly out of committee in the House and that “people are concerned.”
“I’m not telling you tales of what could happen — these are things that do happen,” Margolis said, emphasizing the powder’s potential threat to public safety. “I think it’s important not to be a demonstration state, and to indeed ban it until you have some idea what in the world is going on out there.”
Despite concerns raised by Sens. Darren Soto, Garrett Richter and Miguel Diaz de la Portilla — who indicated he preferred to regulate than to ban the product — as well as Capitol gadfly Brian Pitts that the criminal penalties in the statute were too severe, the bill was approved without opposition on a 12-0 vote.
The proposal’s House counterpart, HB 1247, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Avila sits in Regulatory Affairs after being approved in Appropriations Wednesday.
