Powdered Alcohol Earns TTB Approval

In an unexpected turn of events for nearly every party involved, a powdered alcohol product has earned the approval of the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau (TTB), causing the company involved to quickly clean up its act as it prepares to fall under the public eye.

Powdered alcohol, called "Palcohol," earned TTB approval some months ago, but unbeknownst to the owners of the company, the TTB began making Palcohol public far in advance of the company's expectations.

"We were caught off guard by the TTB making some of our approved labels public which we now know is standard procedure. As a result, people visited this website that we thought was under the radar because we had not made a formal announcement of Palcohol," an official statement on the company's now-cleaned-up home page explains.

The original web-site, which was originally being used for some experimentation with "humorous and edgy verbiage about Palcohol," according to the company, fell under fire by public health advocates and media alike when some of the page's statements appeared to encourage use of the product as a way to smuggle alcohol into places that do not condone drinking. Other interpretations of the page suggested that Palcohol was designed with the alcoholic in mind and encouraged risky behavior.

Still, according to statements from Palcohol's inventor Mark Philips, the product was designed for active and on-the-go adults who want to take time out of the day to enjoy an "adult beverage" without having to go home or to the closest restaurant.

Contrary to reports that claimed that the product was 65 percent alcohol in powdered form -- a significant health risk for anyone foolish enough to snort it -- the product is only an estimated 10-12 percent alcohol.

In an official statement addressing concerns about people snorting the product, the company explained that since initially realize how it could be abused, they've changed the makeup of each package of Palcohol.

"[W]e've added volume to the powder so it would take more than a half of a cup of powder to get the equivalent of one drink up your nose," the company said. "You would feel a lot of pain for very little gain. Just use it right."

Still, many officials are not reassured by the flood of Palcohol's rumor-correcting statements.

"Well what can I say? I just don't trust the company's marketing people to put a product out that can be subject to this kind of abuse," public health expert Jim Mosher told ABC news earlier this week.

Mosher and people like him are comparing Palcohol to the carbonated liquor Four Loko, which was heavily abused by high school and college students in 2010.

Still, Placohol has been deemed safe enough by federal regulators and the company says that -- with additional state approval -- it will be available for sale by late September.