Celebratory raw milk toast blamed for sickening West Virginia lawmakers

Raw milk has its haters--the CDC included--but when a few of its biggest supporters drank up, they learned the risks the hard way.

After West Virginia lawmakers loosened restrictions on the consumption of raw milk this month, certain legislators celebrated with swigs of the white drink. Shortly after, many of those lawmakers got sick. Huh. 

Lawmakers claim that the illness was "just a coincidence" and most likely a "stomach bug that's going around."

“I highly doubt raw milk had anything to do with it, in my case,” Republican Del. Pat McGeehan told location news station WSAZ.

But not everyone agreed. McGeehan and other legislators involved appear to have drunk milk provided by Republican Del. Scott Cadle. A tip, passed to the state's Department of Health and Human Resources, identified Cadle's milk as the source of the sickness, and further suggested McGeehan might have distributed it illegally.

"I might have been breaking the law. Hell, I don’t know. I gave it away," McGeehan told the Gazette Mail.

While McGeehan admitted that there were "some other colleagues that have similar symptoms that I've been experiencing," he doesn't think that milk is the cause. And even if it was the cause, McGeehan doesn't regret voting for the bill.

"There definitely shouldn't be a law against allowing people to do what they want within the framework of the rule of law," he said.

The state's Department of Health and Human Resources is currently researching the illness and its cause. 

The new law doesn't lift a ban on selling or distributing raw milk, but starting in May, when it takes effect, people will be able to drink raw milk if they acknowledge the health risks in a signed document. According to the CDC, raw milk can carry "harmful bacteria and other germs that can make you very sick or kill you."

[h/t Death and Taxes]