I miss candy cigarettes. I used to love them as a kid, and I've never smoked, so... well, so much for THAT argument.

Loosen your neckties a little, guys. Zero point five percent alcohol? Heavens, call the National Guard. You probably get more than that from the vanilla extract in sugar cookies. Not that we can give those to children anymore either.

Just a question. If this is consumed by a teen who is breathalysed for any reason and there are trace amounts of alcohol on their breath, can they still be charged with possession by consumption?

Wspahn- I agree we probably should stop giving kids anything with an extract in it, cough medicine when they are sick etc.... As far as the bottle I don't see that it looks like a liquor bottle I see it more as an old style glass bottle (Victorian) maybe the name and the bottle were meant to go together for effect I don't know, I think it is just something else for them to get all worked up over like they always do, lets just ban everything.

I miss candy cigs also! My parents would buy them for us I loved them as a kid and I used to pretend I was smoking them - They also gave me cough medicine when I was sick and my Mom cooked with pure extracts (I must have been wasted as a kid maybe this is why I smoked candy cigs) my parents were so irresponsible- just kidding, I turned out just fine.

These people really need to relax a little!

Don't forget vanaila extract. Lets send some to the Foxcroft road.

hurry hurry little marty call the law lets make a big deal about nothing

What a bunch of crybabies.

You had bettter remove all of the apple juice from the store shelves as it can contain up to .5 alcohol. What a waste of time, I'd say talent, but that seems to be pretty slim these days.

This is coming from a town that you still can not buy alcohol in on Sunday! Furthermore, only minutes from the Canadian border, where Maine minors can buy alcohol at the age of 19....Come on people, I think that alcohol is the least of Houlton's problems!

Teleskiah - I think they still drink in the closets there!!!!!!!!!!!

You must be insane. Kids can buy mouthwash with 30% alcohol but that's OK. HAHA this must be a joke, right? Most refrigerators at home have 6 packs of beer in them so ban that too?

Actually, the legal Canadian drinking age is 18.

I doubt this 'Lemonade' is brewed the same way it was in 1905. Hard Lemonade is an alcoholic beverage . Actually it is illegal to sell ANYTHING to a minor that contains alcohol. That includes mouthwash that has alcohol, real vanilla and any other product that contains alcohol. Store owners should know this.

And , remember when they lowered the drinking age to 18 in Maine. The teens didn't handle it very well. Actually they don't handle it well at 21 either. Also, kids that have parents who use alcohol and keep it acessible to their children are dumb. Kids copy their parents and even though they know they shouldn't , will take some and drink it ---to feel ' grown Up '. That is , if the parents aren't already giving it to them, as many drinkers do.

eastmainer, koolaid, 5 gallons of warm water , baking yeast and 5 lbs of sugar will give you a great poor mans wine in 5 days. Better worry about the oxy's they sell in school instead of lemonade.

Wow, this is asinine.

more and more nanny state less and less freedom

sickntired2, the drinking age in New Brunswick is 19, not 18, People - get a life!!! Stop nic-picking on every single little thing that will harm our kids. You are harming them by protecting them way too much, by doing this they don't know what pain feels like. Let Up. If they going to drink they will get from your fridge at home.

Miners should be allowed to drink whatever they want. They've got a damned hard job.

Elmster I could not agree more. These people make me sick and the rest of us should be outraged. It's no wonder that today's kids are growing up to be such pussies - these puritans are coddling them so much that they can't learn from their own mistakes. They won't stop until everything is illegal and we have become a policed state, which is becoming a closer reality by the day. These IDIOTS are the problem with this country...rather than fix a problem they run from it and make it everyone else's issue so they are not held accountable. In Europe it is customary for kids to have a glass of wine with the dinner their parents have provided them! Why don't they go over there and cry about it???

WRITTEN IN CAPITALS TO AID THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED. LET'S SEE. NO MORE KETCHUP. NO MORE SALAD DRESSING. NO MORE MUSTARD. NO MORE LEMONADE. SOUNDS LIKE SUMMER COOK-OUTS ARE GOING TO TAKE A HIT NEXT YEAR.

So, Imitation liquor cannot be sold to or consumed by minors in Maine. I did not know that. Shouldn't we also ban toy guns so that kids would not be inclined to kill people? Man, the older I get the more ridiculous the world gets...................

ohforcryinoutloud! This is like Prohibition all over again! Clare and Melissa need to go find a hobby---gardening is nice this time of year, ice fishing in a couple of months...

I agree with the majority here, the publicity for the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition must be down, and they had to do something to get their name in the paper. Hey BDN, make them pay advertising rates!

Children in Maine who wish to get high have many ways, easier then drinking 2 gallons of lemonade, to do it.

There are many soda bottles that look like "beer bottles". Doesnt mean its enticing or promoting them to drink. Kids are going to do what they want, when they want. It's going to take more than a 6 pack of this brewed soda for any child to feel any effects of the so called "alcohol" in it. Whoever mentioned this before, they are right, they would be better off drinking vanilla extract straight.

Who really cares. In europe, alcohol is not portrayed as this taboo, dangerous 'adult' thing. Yet even though being brought up with such an acceptance of alcoholic beverages, these people are less likely to abuse the substance than those societies that put strict measures in order to prevent abuse.

Everyone should know that if you tell a kid they can't have something and glorify it as an 'adult only' item, they are definitly going to want it.

BUT, if you grow up in a society where it isn't a big deal - they will most likely perceive it as just that. Not really a big deal.

I would think that if a retailer refused to sell it to a minor, since the product isn't classified as an Imitation Liquor, but as a non-alcoholic beverage, just like soda, that the retailer could be sued for age discrimination...Seriously, though, is this all we have to worry about? A lemonade???

But is it OK to bring you child to a bar when you go drink?? I've been to a few where there is a child younger then the age of 10 sitting at the bar with mom and or dad sitting next to them, is this OK? I don't think so they should be sitting at a table, that's my point of view. I"m not saying it wrong, it's just not right.

A beer can looks and feels like a soda can- does this mean they should stop putting beer in a can? NO! How would Jeff Foxworthy get his redneck jokes? And how would i get my dates?

Last time I checked, they don't check ID's for vanilla extract or mouthwash.

This whole thing is just silly and rediculous. You would have to drink a ton of this stuff to get any effect of the alcohol, if at all. Heck-I don't know if you could physically drink enough of this to "catch a buzz". Banning this product won't make kids stop drinking. You have to be 21 to buy alcohol, 18 for smokes, weed/cocaine/meth are all illegal. Yet kids are able to seek out and buy all that stuff any day of the week.

Many comments below attempt to justify alcohol use. On the contrary to the "facts" of previous posts:

1. In terms of European nations, all but one has higher alcohol use and binge drinking rates than the United States. Open acceptance at a young age does not solve the problem, it exasperates it and the many associated problems: suicide, rapes, physical assault, sexual assault, motor vehicle accidents.

2. The brain develops until the early to mid-20's. Early alcohol use can damage the teen brain, affect memory and decision making - with long-term affects.

3. Study, upon study, upon study affirms that marekting tactics and repeated visualizations increase the likelihood for usage of a product - junk food, tobacco, alcohol, etc. Therefore, yes prevention professionals are concerned with the image and bottling of the product.

4. Are kids getting alcohol at home as well as other substances? Yes, and for as long as substance abuse occurs and costs our society billions of dollars every year and more and more young people abuse products and become addicts, prevention efforts will be in place to combat/counteract that.

Of course there is going to be resistance to a movement that attempts to slow down alcohol consumption, ten years ago the same was true for tobacco. As a society, there is so much resistance on a product that is socially acceptable. However, alcohol is the fifth leading contributor of death and disability in the World, so do expect more and more nations and communities seeking to reduce teen access to it and promote more healthy use.

MPC2009, its not so much justifying alcohol use as justifying that this is even alcohol. Where are the 'facts' for that? The FDA says it isn't.

The phrase 'mountain out of a molehill' seems appropriate.

Yep

There is more alcohol in mouth wash these days, even N/A Beer has just as much alcohol, give me a break and whine about some real issues

I'm a heavy drinker who hosts frequent dinner parties. My liquor cabinet is stocked with several dozen bottles. Not one of them looks remotely like a bottle of Fentimans lemonade. If anything, they look like Sobe bottles. Maybe you should ban Sobe instead. Nobody drinks that crap anyway. I'm so grateful to live in a country that has no more pressing problems than the shape of their lemonade bottles. These colors don't run.

This is what really burns my chaps, we can send our 18 year old kids to war to die for our country, and these poor young men and women can even have a 3.2 beer, put yet they can also vote, what is wrong with this picture, if you have to be 21 to drink, then these young men are too young to go die for our country, WAKE UP AMERICA!!! My mom would by me a case of Bush beer when I was 15 years old, she figured that if I could snow blow the driveway, shovel snow all winter, split and cord wood all summer, harvest potatoes in the fall, then why not, stop treating these young men like kids.... Also, I did join the Army when I was 17 years old and had my 18th B-day in Boot camp, what needs to be learnt here is modification is the key, if you abuse and drink to much water, that is also bad for you, figure it out, Hello, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist.

I believe most of us would agree that our children should not consume alcohol in excess. However, in this case it seems that water intoxication would happen before enough alcohol was consumed to cause even the slightest affect. I guess I am not sure why this is even an issue? One bud light would be equal to a case of this lemonade - I think we would see a diabetic coma from the sugar before we saw intoxication from this drink.

I agree Andrew, that lemonade crap would give me massive heart burn before I caught a buzz, so stop crying of this nonsense and of course Don't be a Bunch of Buzz killers. There's bigger fish to fry.

Any kid can walk into the local drug store and purchase any of these products with the following alcohol contents:

Listerine 26.9%

Scope 18.9%

Signal 14.5%

Cepacol 14.0%

Fentimans Drink 0.5%

A message to the officials in Houlton: the sky is not falling, your children are still safe, and the soft drink company thanks you for the free advertising!

* a typical can of beer is around 3.5%

** a can of bud light and a can of barqs root beer are the same shape and similar in color

It's an issue because of zero tolerance. This is the same stupidity that gets a 6 year old suspended from school for bringing in his Cub Scout tool. People are less interested in turning these things in to learning moments and more interested in making an example. And by the way, they better start checking the ethnic foods aisles for other beverages that have a small percentage of liquor. When I worked in a grocery store eons ago I remember questioning whether a malt beverage that was in a brown bottle could be sold to minors. It could! Oh, and we should ban anything with imitation sugar because that is a "sugar alcohol", and we can't have kids getting drunk off that! They'd get massive gastrointestinal issues from consuming too much before they'd get any kind of buzz, but hey, we can't have ANY alcohol in kids' hands.

As I said, this should have been made a teaching moment. Instead this group blew it up beyond proportion and now they look pretty stupid. Great way to garner support for your organization!

Someone submitted this article to fark.com and the farkers are all voting "yes" in the poll....LOL

talk about free advertising: see ---> http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=4717252&startid=55374836

So now users of one of the web's most popular news aggregators are talking about it. Congratulations helicoptermommies! Streisand effect in play.

not quite mean enough for /b/ but i'll take it :-)

OK, people, listen up...... oh, how I wish the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse, would now notice how silly,silly they look now. The very sound purpose which prompted them is now held up as a silly stupid scheme. You have dealt yourselves a very stunning blow by taking up the bait laid for you...... You have done grievous injury to your noble purpose..... I know that you lie awake at night grieving for some dear departed teenager who prompted you to join the noble purpose proposed by these and other groups attempting to stem the tide of alcohol from young people who have not gained the maturity to handle it.

I applaud your purpose! it is so sad to see how easily you are set adrift.... so sad.......

DougLavigne---Our 18 year olds enlist in the military. There is NO Draft , so when they go into the service they know they are being trained to maybe be deployed to a war zone. They also know they weren't allowed to drink at 18.

As to all of you that think drinking is so great and kids should be allowed to use alcohol---how many of you have lost a child because of a drunk driver or because your our teen child was driving a vehicle when another has died and now spends years in jail.

And, there are thousands of adults who don't have the maturity to handle alcohol either.

Well, apparently one of us has. I understand that its something that will taint your objectivity. I think you're missing the point of TFA.

eastmainer, everybodies different, I do understand your point of view, it's all about moderation, along with being responsible, if your responsible enough to put your life on the line, you should be responsible enough to have 3.2, also, it's just not teens driving drunk, it's all ages....

The humane thing to do would have been to preface that with 'sorry for your loss.' x.x

wspahn - I guess since you didn't do it, no one else did. Didn't you tell the state officials that?

Teleskiah - Alcohol is a major problem everywhere. Just read the paper. Most accidents, and the police reports, are full of alcohol-related incidents.

Teleskiah - One of their damned hard jobs is killing themselves and others.

woodpecker - Don't yell at me. What have I ever done to you?

shroomtour04 - Look at what you wrote. Should give you a hint as to why you're not getting dates.

MPC2009 - A reasonable voice in the "let kids do anything including killing others - they're just kids" wilderness. Oh, I forgot. Treat them as adults. Then become outraged when they get caught and the court says we're treating them as adults. After all, they're just kids. Anyone want to hop on this merry-go-round suited for every argument?

DougLavigne - "Near Beer" has 3.2 or less. See above about "kids" for a place for you to hop on. After reading your letter, you didn't have to tell us it wasn't written by a rocket scientist.

eastmainer - Well said.

I've raised three kids to adulthood and I am quite sure that all of them had some "demon rum" before they were 21. As parents we don't drink or smoke or do drugs but we never made a big deal about those that did. When each child was old enough to drive and get out on their own they were told what was considered "bad" behavior. Drugs were an absolute never under any circumstances. Smoking was discouraged and so was alcohol use. We let them know our opinion about drinking but also told them that they had to make their own decisions about drinking. The one absolute about drinking was that we had better never find out that they had driven anywhere at anytime after drinking even a little bit! They were told upfront that if they were caught driving under the influence by either the police or us, they would lose their driving priviledges, the insurance coverage by us, and any car that we helped them use.They would find a sober driver or have a designated driver, or call us to pick them up (without penalty) if they had been drinking. Without penalty was agreed to as a reward for not being stupid and trying to drive while under the infuence. Because we were reasonable and straight with them and they knew we meant what we said they treated alcohol with some common sense and weren't a danger to themselves or others on the road. Our oldest is 29 and to this day if she goes to the bar she will ask for a ride home afterwards and leave her car there. I still do it because I would rather get up (or stay up until ) midnight then have a cop knock on my door to tell me she had an accident or was killed on her way home. As parents we can't dictate our kids values unless they accept them but we can meet them on a realistic level to help keep them safer with their decisions on their behavior. This flap about .5% alcohol in lemonade is ridiculous and counter-productive! Leave the issue alone and find something better to do with your time!! I suggest maybe an organized designated driver program for those that do experiment with alcohol or drugs, or safe places to seek help if they get into trouble, or maybe just someone to talk with teens without preaching, dictating, or pressuring them on the subject of alcohol,drugs or tobacco. A simple, honest discussion about the dangers of substance abuse as non-judgemental friends, peers or mentors can do wonders to help a teen that may be getting inton trouble with one of these issues. By the way another subject that I didn't include here is their sexual decisions! That is another important issue that having a reasonable adult around that they can discuss things with would be a big help for the teens! By the time a teen is in the military or off to college their values and actions have already been decided you won't change them! Parents that are reading this. Your kids will have a hard time talking about these issues honestly with you and many of you will have trouble bringing them up with your kids. Wouldn't it be good to have someone out there that your kids could turn to for discussion and honest information so that they can make good choices?

Woody 1; your just every bodies critic today, no matter what the subject is, their will always be more then one opinion, and one must value that other opinion.

"non-judgemental friends, peers or mentors" --> a nonexistant utopia I believe. Just an opinion.

Next time I send cupcakes in for the class I'll be sure to list that I used real vanilla (35% alcohol) in the frosting! Many dangerous things out there for kids. Beer cans, beer bottles, and funky soda labels are just a little part of it.

Garden variety, you can't send cupcakes to school, that's against the nutrition policy - a measure to combat obesity and poor nutrition. Better send in the trail mix - no alcohol and healthy :)

MPC2009 ; That was one of the best politically correct statements that I have heard all day, even though I could still use a Big Fat Cupcake and Victorian Lemonade.

OK. So this 22 oz. bottle has about 1/2 teaspoon of alcohol. You people are crazy to cause such a fuss about this.

MPC2009, I am bumming over the no butter on the popcorn during games!!! Maybe this year I will take a thermos full and sell it by the tablespoon.

' ' ' ' ' ' ' where will you find this in the store as adult section ' ' ' ' ' ' '

When you stopped marketing candy cigarettes I had to shift over to the real ones , so its your fault I'm addicted to nicotine . I smell a lawsuit.

maybe the parents should decide....hmmm, that would be strange.

Wallyo- If you smoke light cigs you can probably just jump on the existing one, just make sure you tell them you didn't know they were bad for you. Amazing...

OMG! I guess parents shouldn't take their 10 year old kids out to dinner anymore and let them have a Shirley Temple or a Roy Rogers or aVirgin Starwberry Daquiri because it "LOOKS LIKE" a grown-up drink! (eye roll)

When I was in the Army (in the 1980's), it was legal to drink on base at the base operated bars and buy beer at the PX and drink in the barracks. Not sure if the Army or other services have bowed to the pressure and stopped this or not. But at the time, they recognised that soldiers old enough to fight and die for their country are old enough to drink. It's time to end the double standard.

I'm starting to think the members of some of these "Substance Abuse Groups" (and other puritans) ate too many lead-laden paint chips as children.

OMG- getta life!! People and their moral soapboxes. Reminds me of the bartender back in the sixties down in West Virginia- was hurt pretty bad in a bar brawl .Seems he took a stand and refused to serve miners!

Lets just all grab a case of beer and take about it,

LarryTheMainiacGuy, you hit it right on the head, you could not of said it better,

Kaiser, I like your point of view,

and to the rest of you negitive commenters, Damn the Torpedos.... Oh what did you all say, I can't here you all anymore, it's beer O'clock gotta go,

Have a Great Weekend ~8-)

Pardon my typo's, and I haven't even had a beer yet, what a shame.

the majority of the alcohol content in the first one would be metabolized by the time you drank the second one, so much like Kombucha tea, apple cider, or any other fermented product, it would be nearly impossible to get drunk...

and there is no alcohol left in flavoring once it is cooked because alcohol evaporates at the beginning of cooking.

you would have to drink 220 oz of this stuff to = one 12oz of bottel of budwiser, just thowing some numbers out there if any one was curious.

so of all the things kids can get their hands on? They worry about a legal brewed lemonade beverage? LOL Good old Houlton Maine.

grow up and get a life Houlton.

Heard from a distributor today that sales have taken off !! LOL he thanks Houlton !!

Seems that common sense left the country around the time Obama got elected and just allowed the moonbats to think they were justified in controling all thing great and small !

Not only will kids NOT drink this stuff because its way too expensive (over $2 per) btl, but it is NOT sweet !! Its an adult beverage - usually a mixer !! Too funny if it wasnt sad..

Apparently the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, fails to grasp that there is alcohol in Orange Juice are they going to get into a tiz other that as well? DavidAllen, put it well, now the British newsmedia have pick-up this story and the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse, are international laughing stocks!

More imporant is the negative publicity for Maine, as a State depicted international as a place where we can't tell the difference between underage drinking and a product (Fentimans' lemonade) where one would have to drink over two gallons of at a single sitting to equal a pint of beer! The teen would be more likely to die of a burst bladder, than become intoxicated!

Congradulations Houlton High School and the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition for total over reaction!