The Colorado House of Representatives will vote today on a bill banning the manufacturing and sale of powdered alcohol in the state. The legislation also provides an exit ramp for getting out of the very prohibition it would enact. Before House Bill 1031 passed out of the House State Affairs Committee on Monday by a 9-2 vote, the ban on powdered alcohol was amended to include language which, in theory, could also make it go away. It includes an automatic self-repealing mechanism if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “approves the use, purchase, sale, possession, or manufacturing of powdered alcohol in the United States,” and if the state “establishes and implements a mechanism for regulating the manufacture, purchase, sale, possession and use of powdered alcohol.” The repeal clause, however, would likely become a circular exercise since alcohol, including powdered alcohol, is regulated not by FDA but by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It was the application for powdered alcohol to be sold under the “Palcohol” brand, filed with Treasury, that sparked bills to ban it in as many as a dozen states. The Colorado bill being voted on today mandates that a variety of research universities, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and hospitals report to the state by Sept. 1, 2015, if they have any intent to acquire powdered alcohol, or if they are currently in possession of it. Their research is exempt from the ban. Possession by anyone else would be, if convicted, a Class 2 misdemeanor. Today’s vote on a powdered alcohol ban is being seen as a bit schizoid by some. That’s because it comes in a state which, a year ago, became the first in the nation to make sales of recreational marijuana legal. Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont already ban powdered alcohol products, while several other states are considering their own bans. A one-sentence Florida bill has been introduced that would ban “Palcohol” until the federal government gives its final approval.