SPRINGFIELD -- For some underage drinkers and those who are newly 21, the tools of intoxication have changed with technology. The new kid on the block is the AWOL Machine, short for Alcohol Without Liquid.

The machine vaporizes the alcohol, and users breathe in half of a shot in 20 minutes. This "hit in the global club scene" promises a "euphoric" feeling of oxygen with the effect of being drunk but with lower calories and no hangover.

But what sounds like a drinker's paradise has Missouri's Liquor Patrol, lawmakers and people in the medical community worried for young drinkers, legal or not.

“The reaction a lot of the times is: ‘What on earth would you want to do that for?’” said state Rep. Jerry Nolte, R-Gladstone, in a telephone interview.

Nolte introduced bills to ban the machine but they haven't moved much over the last three years, while similar bills got stuck in the Senate. That makes Missouri one of 11 states considering a ban; 23 others already keep AWOL out.

Nolte says the machine's marketing targets underage drinkers.

“Drinking, especially among young people, is increasing!" said Nolte.

Joe Hodgin, a district supervisor of the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Liquor Control, says abusing the machine is easy. He doubts users will heed the company's warning to inhale no more than 40 minutes in a 24-hour period. That's the equivalent of one full shot.

"Get a group of kids together and try to limit them to twice in a 20-hour period: I just don't see that happening,” said Hodgin.

KY3 News decided to put it to the test. One online order and $300 later, the machine arrived, with no proof of age required.

"This by all appearance is what many families, including children and adults, use at home for asthma related symptoms,” said Dr. Ted McMurry.

McMurry says the idea is dangerously simple. He says replacing an asthmatic's medicine with alcohol changes how the body takes in a drink.

"It doesn't get broken down by the stomach contents, so this is just a way of putting the drug in our system in a more pure form,” he said.

It’s purer and faster, with a stronger buzz in a shorter amount of time. As for being low-calorie, McMurry says the machine will only vaporize the alcohol, leaving behind the additives -- the majority of a drink's calories. But no hangover?

"Any alcoholic beverage could make that claim, that if you drink in moderation, you're not going to get a hangover,” said McMurry.

Doctors say the lack of liquor sloshing around in the stomach also helps prevent pain the next day. Regardless, those supporting a ban say it doesn't outweigh the potential for disaster. The consequences of intoxication are still the same, by bong, by shot or by vapor.