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Parents beware of alcoholic "Zippers"
From the Clipper-Herald
10-04-03
The Dawson County Project
Extra Mile coalition is urging parents to pay special attention to "Zippers," a new alcohol product soon to be available in Nebraska.
Sometimes referred to as "alcopops" because of their
sweet taste, Zippers are fruit-flavored, liquor-laced gelatin shots. The product's packaging resembles the Jell-O snack cups that are a popular snack among youth.
In 2002, the Nebraska Liquor Control
Commission asked wholesalers to place a voluntary sales ban on Zippers because of concerns by the Commission and community groups. The Commission lifted that ban last month after BPNC Inc., the Ohio manufacturer of
Zippers, redesigned the package, toning down the original bright colors and stacking the cups vertically in a package. Zippers will be available in Nebraska sometime this fall.
"According to the Center
on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, one in five eighth graders has been drunk," said Nick Trede, Project Extra Mile Coordinator. "Zippers only serve as a 'gateway drug' that further
eases young people into regular alcohol use."
Project Extra Mile will launch an informational campaign in order to educate community members on the potential dangers of Zippers. Information will be sent
to area schools with a request to include it in their regular newsletter. Local law enforcement agencies will be contacted, and county retailers will be encouraged to not sell the new product.
"The
change in packaging is not enough," said Trede. "The fact remains that Zippers still look like a regular lunch box snack. We don't need another product out there targeting our youth."
Zippers
come in a variety of flavors, including Blue Hawaiian, Purple Hooter and Melon Head. A package contains eight cups, each with 12 percent alcohol per serving.
Project Extra Mile is a network of community
coalitions across Nebraska that engage in a comprehensive approach to preventing underage drinking. Community coalitions for Project Extra Mile are currently in the following counties: Dawson, Douglas, Hall,
Madison, Platte, Sarpy, and Scotts Bluff. Project Extra Mile is funded by the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety, the Health Care Cash Fund, and private donations.
Zippers focus of commission meeting
BY JoAN L. OSTERGARD, Staff Writer
Lexington Clipper-Herald
November 8, 2003
Zippers, not the kind you close your pants with, but the kind that people can get drunk with, are a major focus of
the local agency focused on reducing under-age drinking.
In a meeting of the Project Extra Mile Public Information and Education Work Group on Monday, Zippers was a main topic of discussion and concern.
Zippers are what in bars and private parties are called "Jell-O shots." Alcohol, usually white alcohol such as vodka, gin or white rum, is mixed with a gelatin-type liquid and chilled until firm in a
small cup. The drinker then eats the "Jell-O shot," getting alcohol in a pleasant tasting gelatin.
The concern, brought up by Nick Trede, director of Project Extra Mile, is that the small containers
that the Zippers are packed in look exactly like any number of non-alcoholic Jell-O snacks. They are both gelatin, both colorful and both fruit smelling.
"In the refrigerator, they both look the
same," Trede said, "and in school how is the teacher to tell the difference?"
In a recent afternoon session of the Dawson County Commissioners, Zippers were discussed. Trede recommended to the
commissioners that they discourage or outlaw sale of Zippers in the county.
Mogens Knudsen, co-owner of a local business that has a liquor license, Sav-A-Lot Discount Foods attended the meeting. According to
Walt Wells, Knudsen was the only business represented at the meeting. Wells is the president of the Information and Public Information group.
"I was kind of disappointed that only one retailer was at the
community commissioner's meeting," Wells said. "It was Sav-A-Lot and they said they would not sell Zippers."
Jeff Konen, the other co-owner of Sav-A-Lot, said on Wednesday, that the owners
object to Zippers because of the possible confusion of the alcoholic gelatin snack with the non-alcohol gelatin snack.
"It is not a product we want to sell," Konen said, "because we have a high
concern for underaged drinking.
The Zippers are not sold in Nebraska, but several Zippers wholesalers said they would like to introduce the gelatin product to Nebraska. The new product could be a moneymaker
to stores that sell alcohol.
"I don't think we're going to miss any income from that," Konen continued. "We haven't had it (Zipper) before and nobody has asked for it."
The county
commissioners are taking the Zippers issue to heart. They instructed deputy county attorney, Kurt McBride to write a proposal to the state liquor commission asking them to reinstate the voluntary ban on selling
Zippers. Until this year, stores that could sell Zippers voluntarily did not stock Zippers. Recently the voluntary ban was lifted.
"The commissioners ask me to prepare a draft to the liquor commission to
reinstate the ban," McBride said, "and if it is sold here to ask the liquor retailers here not to market it."
Linda Benjamin, president of the county board, went farther. She told the Project
Extra Mile representatives that she was going to designate a task force on underage drinking to find how the commissioners can address the problem and assist groups that are working on the problem.
Benjamin
said Wednesday that she was organizing a steering committee made up of two of the teens that attended the afternoon commission meeting, Commissioner John Knapple, Sheriff Gary Reiber and herself.
"I'm
going to appoint Kylee Hoffmaster, Lindsey Kratzer, John Knapple, Gary Reiber and I to a steering committee," Benjamin said, "and we're going to decide who should be on the task force to look into
under-aged drinking.
"I want those teens to tell us if they think the task force should be all kids, all adults, where should they come from, churches, legal people, just who should be on the committee.
"I want to listen to what the kids have to tell us about this."
Benjamin said she hoped the steering committee could meet before Thanksgiving and the task force by the Christmas holidays.
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