Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
Voice of America is funded by the US Federal Government and content it
exclusively produces is in the public domain.
June 9, 2008

What Do You Get When You Combine Spirits and Sugar? 
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1C95786:A6F02AD83191E160B4C580F84637C6E1D937473925D9872C&
 
A headache, if you're charged with controlling alcoholic beverages 

Taxing pre-mixed alcoholic drinks heavily, as places like Australia have
done, is one way to cut alcopop sales. But many young people then switch
to even harder drinksIn the United States, the regulation of alcoholic
beverages is the job of state governments. And each of them often
delegates responsibility to its smaller divisions called counties. For
instance, some counties allow grocery stores to sell hard liquor, and
others restrict the sale of spirits to carefully controlled state
outlets. A few counties are dry, meaning you can't even buy a beer
except, perhaps, in a private club.

Alcopop ads depict party scenes, usually involving young people, with
the clear message that these zippy new drinks add to the funBut just as
everyone had sorted out how to handle beer, wine, and liquor sales,
along came a new kind of alcoholic beverage that defies definition.
Generically, it's called, cleverly and seductively, an alcopop.

These are sweet drinks that are brewed like beer or distilled like hard
liquor, from which any color or bitter taste has been removed. The
manufacturers then add sugar, fruit juice, or other flavorings. Hence
the pop part of the name. The drinks taste like soda pop or a lollipop
with a kick. 

Not surprisingly, these drinks have become a hit with young people,
including teenagers too young to legally buy or consume alcohol. A hit
with the makers of alcopops, too, because they are brisk sellers.

As those who seek to restrict sales of trendy sweet drinks point out,
adding an alcoholic haze to the inexperience of young drivers can
produce deadly resultsMany of these drinks carry zippy names like Zima,
Vodka Kick, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and Hooper's Hootch. Their
advertisements depict trendy young adults laughing and joking and
clinking glasses. That's precisely why many parents' groups want to
restrict the sale of alcopops to state-run liquor stores where those
under the legal drinking age are prohibited from buying them. 

The makers of alcopops have other ideas, of course. If there were time,
we'd tell you how the 3,141 U.S. counties have decided to handle the
problem. But some of them haven't completely figured it out.


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