Cloying, oft-carbonated alcoholic beverages (apparently they're known as "alcopop," though I refuse to use that word, because it sounds more like a weird new music genre than a beverage) are under great scrutiny in Maryland: are they beer or liquor?

Yesterday, Governor Martin O'Malley decided to hold off on signing a bill that would categorize the fruity drinks as beer, a move that rattled the liquor industry. Liquor lobbyists think the drink should be sold as beer, but others (like Mothers Against Drunk Driving members) disagree, saying putting malt liquor drinks sold alongside beer in convenience stores will encourage underage drinking and driving.

Another sticking point is the tax: currently, the drinks are taxed like beer at 9 cents per gallon, whereas liquor is taxed as $1.50 a gallon, meaning a higher revenue for the state.

The position of Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, who first ruled that the drinks should be considered liquor because they are distilled spirits, is best summed up by his quote: "They are no more beer than hot chocolate is," He said.

Now there's something to ponder: hot chocolate beer.

Something tells me parents aren't going to be thrilled with this.

College students in Amsterdam have invented powdered alcohol, and they say that the product can actually be sold to minors (16 and over) because it's not in liquid form. Not sure if that would fly in the U.S, but one of the inventors bluntly admits that they are "aiming for the youth market," and Germany and other countries have already had that controversy over alcopops. I can see this coming to the U.S. and causing a controversy too.

The product is called Booz2Go, of course.

Due to falling alcohol prices, "drink wars" in pubs and sales at supermarkets, it looks like this could be the booziest Christmas ever in Britain. The average Briton will drink a surprisingly large amount over the holiday: 18 pints of beer, three bottles of wine, one bottle of spirits and four glasses of fortified wine. That comes out to 137 units of alcohol in a little over a week. Given that the maximum limit recommend for men is only 21 units and 14 units for women, health officials are concerned about people's health. Increasing your alcohol consumption by 4 to 6 times is not good for your health at any time.

Britain is known as a big-drinking (or binge drinking, depending on who you ask) country, with the average person consuming 200 liters of alcoholic drinks in 2006, which comes out to more than 8 billion liters for the whole country.

Health officials and groups are encouraging companies to cut back on and.or eliminate their advertising that appeals to young people and to consider restricting the sales of "alcopop" drinks, the sugared, colored, sweet concoctions that are clearly, in most eyes, not "aimed at adults." Even if changes are instituted, it won't have any effect on this holiday season, but next year, those officials might be able to rest a little easier.

In an effort to curb underage drinking, two California senators have launched a plan to make sweet malt liquor products like Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice more expensive, less available and less aggressively advertised. Democratic Senators Carole Migden of San Francisco and Liz Figueroa of Sunol feel that the makers of sweet, carbonated drinks they call 'alcopops' are illegally targeting underage drinkers with their advertising. Advertising that is "intended to encourage minors to drink" alcohol is illegal in California. According to a recent Sacramento Bee article, the senators' proposed legislation would eliminate the need to prove intent. The other approach contained in the proposed law would change the tax status of such sweet drinks from that of brewed alcohol (like beer) to distilled spirits--a tax jump of over $3 per gallon. Opponents say that the proposal unfairly targets drinkers of legal age, as it would make malt beverages unavailable in restaurants that have only beer and wine licenses. Moreover, opponents of the proposal say that those selling liquor to underage drinkers should be targeted over advertisers.