Powdered alcohol may not be legal for long

Why can’t they just let us drink powder?!

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill Thursday that would ban the sale of powdered alcohol.

Schumer’s legislation came days after the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved federal labels for sale of powdered alcohol, produced by a company called Palcohol. Now, instead of just grabbing a bottle, all you need is a simple powder – in flavors like Cosmopolitan and Lemon Drop – mixed into water. (Or into alcohol if you’re really going for it?) The substance will be on sale as early as this summer.

“We simply can’t sit back and wait for powdered alcohol to hit store shelves across the country, potentially causing more alcohol-related hospitalizations and, God forbid, deaths,” Schumer said in a statement.

Schumer said he asked the FDA to halt sales of the product but the agency declined.

Lipsmark, which makes Palcohol, initially got approval from the federal government last year but it was rescinded because of a discrepancy in the “fill level” for each powder packet.