Booze Pops (frozen alcohol on a popsicle stick) should be controlled by the SC Alcohol Beverage Licensing authority (ABC Law). Please help us send a strong message to our legislators.

Instead, alcoholic popsicles have been approved in SC as "food" and not as alcoholic beverages. Does this mean that your bartender can put a wooden stick in your mixed drink, quick freeze it, remove the glass and you can walk out the door to your car and drive home while you eat your drink?!

The details of the "it's only food" ruling are unknown to me but it defies logic. The alcohol content is the same as and higher than mixed drinks.

Please sign on to insist that the SC Legislature immediately review and correct this situation. Besides the obvious, here are just a few reasons:

• ABC law prohibits alcohol product packaging or ads that might entice adolescents
• ABC prohibits glorifying alcohol consumption using signs like "BUZZ POPS".."Booze Pops for High Rollers" ( alcohol % higher than a typical mixed drink )
• ABC prohibits consuming while driving...Booze Pops buyers often drive away eating them
• ABC prohibits proxy purchases for minors...street vended popsicles make this easy
• ABC law prevents sale anywhere near Schools, Neighborhoods, and Churches
• ABC law requires mixed drinks be served in a licensed and zoned Bar establishment

ABC law is meant to protect our adolescents, young adults and all of us. Alcohol related fatalities in South Carolina are among the highest in the nation! Victims are and could be our daughters, our sons, our nieces, our nephews, our grandchildren, our neighbors, our college students, and ourselves. This will spread...we can't just stand by and watch it happen. Please forward this petition (https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/put-stops-on-booze-pops) to your contacts or group contacts with a personal note encouraging them to sign on to this worthwhile and vital initiative. There are plans to expand this "franchise" into other parts of the state and nation.

All of our lives may depend on it.

Thank You!

P.S. Please email comments and your knowledge of this and any other alcohol related firsthand issues in our state to: PutStopsOnBoozePops@Gmail.com. The Post and Courier and other news outlets have published articles about the public outrage at the current ruling that allows this activity...

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/booze-pops-are-a-growing-street-business-but-charleston-city/article_46dac76e-3030-11e7-84cd-a33584e640eb.html

https://www.wbtw.com/news/booze-pops-categorization-questioned-food-or-alcohol/868568835

https://www.counton2.com/news/booze-pops-sparking-controversy-in-city-of-charleston/997653662

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/dui-related-deaths-in-charleston-are-twice-the-national-rate/article_fcfb4eee-19c0-11e9-92e3-a7627240a3d3.html

https://charlestonbusiness.com/news/hospitality-and-tourism/74698/