Gotta Watch that Mike’s Hard

Based on this article, you would almost think a bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade is rat poison:

The Comerica cop estimated that Leo had drunk about 12 ounces of the hard lemonade, which is 5% alcohol. But an ER resident who drew Leo’s blood less than 90 minutes after he and his father were escorted from their seats detected no trace of alcohol.

“Completely normal appearing,” the resident wrote in his report, “… he is cleared to go home.”

But it would be two days before the state of Michigan allowed Ratte’s wife, U-M architecture professor Claire Zimmerman, to take their son home, and nearly a week before Ratte was permitted to move back into his own house.

The father, a Professor of Archeology at the University of Michigan, who doesn’t watch much television, apparently was unaware that it was alcoholic lemonade.  Easy mistake to make.

One 12 ounce bottle of hard lemonade isn’t going to hurt a 7 year old.  Hell, they used to tell parents to give whiskey to kids to fight teething pain (ask my dad about that one).  It was a simple mistake, and a bit of questioning should have revealed that, and that should have been the end of it.

Hat tip to Orin Kerr.

6 thoughts on “Gotta Watch that Mike’s Hard”

  1. ‘ell one of the local remedies in central VA is a tablespoon of Jim Beam in tea with honey, does wonders for a sore throat… and helps the kid (and adults) sleep. Its what I use when I get ill, beats the crap out of any medication.

    A little alcohol doesn’t hurt.

  2. A child’s metabolism is so high that I’m not surprised they didn’t find any alcohol in his blood stream. The kid could have probably done 3 shots of whiskey and it wouldn’t show up after 90 minutes.

  3. Children’s cough medicine is 70% alcohol by volume, yet it’s okay for big pharma to liquor up our kids but it’s not okay that parent mistakenly gives his kid what he thought was lemonade.

  4. BAH! You heathens elsewhere might have CCW, but here in WI, we can drink with parents or guardians at any age, anywhere. A Dad can visit his 18 year old college son and take him out for a drink or two, or a hunting party can have some good old fun by getting the 12 year olds drunk!

  5. I haven’t seen you so happy, before or since, I put those ten drops of whiskey in your bottle

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