Editorial: Keeping alcohol vapor, powder out of the suburbs

Oftentimes, communities are forced to react to an issue when they haven't taken proactive steps to avoid the problem altogether.

But as Daily Herald staff writer Eric Peterson reported this week, several suburbs are stepping in to battle what officials perceive as a dangerous trend that needs to be stopped before its popularity takes hold.

And they are right in doing so.

Schaumburg officials next week will join their brethren from Naperville, Pingree Grove and River Forest by passing an ordinance outlawing the possession and sale of both powdered alcohol and alcohol smoking devices.

"We're just trying to stay in front of it," said Schaumburg Police Chief Jim Lamkin. "For us, it was pre-emptive. From a public safety standpoint, it's something we just don't want here."

Indeed, there is little to want or need when it comes to this kind of alcohol ingestion.

Powdered alcohol can be added to already alcoholic beverages to make them more potent. And "alcohol without liquid" devices, known as AWOL machines, vaporize liquid alcohol into fumes that can be inhaled, reaching the bloodstream faster by bypassing the body's digestive system.

Getting drunk faster, in any form of alcohol, is not progress and not necessary for any community. Makers of the machines argue that not all are dangerous and not all people who like them misuse them. But that should not be a strong enough argument against legislation.

And though Illinois, along with 22 other states, bans AWOL machines, its 2007 law was too specific to outlaw newer models. Schaumburg's local ordinance is broad enough to cover any machine that "vaporizes alcohol for any but medical reasons."

Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico said of why the city approved its ban last year: "If it happens in Chicago, it will work its way out here. Hopefully it won't catch on."

But it is catching on the coasts and in bigger cities.

"I don't believe these are safe in any capacity," Dr. Salahuddin Syed, an addictionologist at the Amita Health Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates, told Peterson. "If (users) don't get an effect, they often keep going until they get an effect."

It's important the leaders in suburban communities recognize they can take steps to protect their residents now, rather than wait for something bad to happen. Teens and young adults who can't get alcohol legally are especially vulnerable and need that protection.