I read in the paper a couple of days ago that a 14 year old got OSS for being drunk and acting stupid. Understandable. When questioned where he got the alcohol, though, officials say the kid drank cooking extracts, such as lemon (throat killer?) and vanilla extract. The kid purchased various sizes, 32oz to 8oz bottles of the stuff from a local specialty grocery store. The ABV of the vanilla extract was 45%, which is stronger than your typical vodka and whisky, and the lemon extract was 80%.
I think I remember stories from when I was going to school of kids using extracts from the cupboard to get a buzz, but I never recalled it being legal to buy them at any age. And that was like 10 years ago, how is it still legal today if kids have been continually doing this? I thought stores were suppose to set age limits on things that were abused by teens?
This shit just reminds me of how much I hate: teens, our system for the countless number of loopholes, store clerks for being idiots, and Twilight.
We should also not let kids buy sugar or yeast to prevent them from making moonshine. In fact, we should focus all of our laws and efforts on inconveniencing everyone in the entire nation so a few kids don’t get drunk. In fact, kids could buy it with fake IDs! Let’s just prohibit alcohol and anything which could be used to produce it, altogether, instead. I’ll write up an amendment right now. We’ll call it Super-Prohibition.
Good, Arac. Let me know when it’s done and I will sign it. Those damn hoodlum bastards.
Anyhow, I don’t care what’s done about it. I just find it stupid that you can buy already bottled, over 80 proof, basically “flavored” alcohol without being IDd but a 12 pack of beer that tastes just as bad and has less alcohol (what’s the average…2 proof?) content for the whole box and boom, throw up the red flag if the person doesn’t even look 50. Many liquors can be used in recipes to add tremendous flavors, but it doesn’t mean you’re not going to get IDd if you say that’s its sole purpose. What reason does a 14 year old have in buying pure vanilla extract in 32 oz bottles, anyway? There’s just something stupid about the whole story.
Guys! You can get really damn fucked up if you just start spinning in place! In fact, you can get nauseuous or even vomit, if you repeat it fast enough! Just like when drinking alcohol! And there’s even the world spinning around part too! And from what I gather, you really shouldn’t drive a car/call your ex/hit the irc channel in a state like that!
Where are you finding beer that’s 1% alcohol by volume and tastes just as bad as vanilla extract? I’m sure there are some “light” beers that get down almost that low, but I’m not about to believe that there is beer that tastes as bad as most extracts in their pure state. Anyhow, I needed something like eighteen ounces of vanilla extract when I was making a lavender and vanilla cake, in high school, so if I wanted to have enough to make two (in case I fucked up a very hard recipe), I would need more than 32 oz. Buying in bulk is most often cheaper, even for more routine baking, regardless.
I suppose the difference in our viewpoints iis that I find the fact that I need to ask a friend to buy liquor for me if I want to use it for cooking stupid, while you find it stupid that I didn’t have to be twenty-one myself to put almost extract (from which all the alcohol cooked off) in a cake I baked for a friend on his twenty-first birthday.
Recently here in Puerto Rico we had a debate about lowering the acceptable % of alcohol in your blood for driving from .8 to .2. It was counter-alleged that you could get that from things other than drinks, such as some medicines (not sure if this true.) 5% was offered as an alternative but was not accepted. They ended up making it law… but it only applies to people under 20 years. Wait, what? The minimum age for driving here is 18. So… they passed a law that only applies to people for TWO YEARS of their life? What, do people in that span drink MORE than they will from being 21 and up?
A lot of places sell cooking sherry/wine and dont card.
Funnily enough, back in my cashier days we were legally required to card for nonalcoholic beer.
I think it would be ridiculous to try to control EVERYTHING a teen could abuse. Because there will always be teens that want to find a way to abuse things. Seriously, you must be desperate to drink vanilla extract. That shit is strong and nasty.
And it would be plain unfair. I’d be pissed if someone tried telling me I can’t make cakes anymore because I’m not 21 and vanilla is restricted.
Well, in Greece there were either no laws re alcohol consumption of minors or they weren’tenforced. It may have lead to a few bad hangovers, but there was no charm of the prohibited (kinda hard when your dad orders your first drink) or any urge to turn an arbitrary age and start gulping like carzy because you were allowed to.
I don’t see why people should be driving on medicine with alcohol in it, either, though.
As for the law, the idea is probably that an inexperienced driver can handle far less alcohol than someone with a few years of experience. Not that that’s necessarily a good idea, but that probably is the idea.
Not only would that taste bad, but Vanilla Exctract is super expensive. It seems that there are probably more cost effective and less nasty tasting ways to do the same. Thankfully, it seems 14 year olds don’t know of such things.
I’m talking things like cough medicine. Most people never even read the ingredients on the label of the medicines they buy. Again, I’m not sure if taking a sip before you drive can give you a .2% blood alcohol level. In fact, in general I simply never heard where the research offered by either side of the argument came from. That’s why I can’t make my mind up if this was a good idea or not.
Of course not, but my point was: does a 2% alcohol blood level really equate being too drunk to drive? And if so, why apply it ONLY to 18-20 years old people??
Traditionally in America, when a person reaches or nears 21 (whichever gets them into a bar) they go on a drinking binge until they either A) die, B) become alcoholics, or C) realize that binge drinking for the sake of pretending to be mature is overrated and in general a bad idea. I surmise that the point of a .02% blood alcohol level is meant to get kids to realize that drinking isn’t all that its cracked up to be without the potentially fatal bingeing.