LEGISLATURE AGREES TO BAN HIGHER-PROOF GRAIN ALCOHOL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993                   TAG: 9302170270
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
LEGISLATURE AGREES TO BAN HIGHER-PROOF GRAIN ALCOHOL
High-octane ethanol belongs at the gas station, not the liquor store, the General Assembly has decided.
The House of Delegates completed work Tuesday on a bill banning the sale of grain alcohol stronger than 100 proof.
The measure, already approved by the Senate, awaits Gov. Douglas Wilder's signature to become law.
Two brands of grain alcohol rated at 153 proof are sold in Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control stores, said Del. Julia Connally, D-Arlington, sponsor of the bill. They account for only one-quarter of 1 percent of ABC profits, Connally said.
The proof number is twice the alcoholic content; 153 proof is about 76 percent ethanol, and the drink is tasteless, odorless and colorless.
"It is frequently used, especially in college towns, to make these very, very potent punches that are drunk by many people unsuspectingly," Connally said.
The proposal originated in a study commission on substance abuse appointed by Wilder, but Connally had her own reasons for sponsoring it.
Her husband, a physician, told Connally last year about a student at the University of Virginia who drank too much grain-alcohol punch and ended up in the hospital. "She almost died," Connally said. Since then, "university presidents from one end of the state to the other have signed on in support of this bill."
The measure puts no restriction on other high-proof alcohols such as bourbon and rum. Those liquors don't pose the same threat to unsuspecting drinkers, Connally said. "They have very distinctive characteristics; when you drink it, you know it."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB