BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1554 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair AB 1554 (Irwin) - As Introduced January 4, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Governmental Organization |Vote:|18 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill prohibits the purchase, sale, offer for sale, distribution, manufacture, possession, or use of powdered alcohol. It prohibits the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) from issuing a license to manufacture, distribute, or sell powdered alcohol, as defined, and would require ABC to revoke the license of any licensee who manufactures, distributes, or sells powdered alcohol. AB 1554 Page 2 FISCAL EFFECT: Minor absorbable workload to ABC to monitor and enforce the provisions of this bill. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. Proponents of AB 1554 argue that powdered alcohol, a powder product that becomes an alcoholic beverage when mixed with water or any other liquid, is a dangerous product with potential great appeal to underage drinkers. It is cheap, potent, and easy to hide, and supporters point out that youth are especially vulnerable because they can sneak powdered alcohol products into events. Moreover, powdered alcohol products manufactured in other countries have been marketed squarely at teenagers. 2)Federal and state regulation of powdered alcohol. While powdered alcohol is technically legal, it is not currently being sold anywhere in the United States. In 2015, the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TBB) approved labels for a product called Palcohol, and the Palcohol website states that "we will be working on getting production facility up and running. It will take a while but hopefully it will be available soon." Twenty-seven states have already banned powdered alcohol, and three states, Colorado, Delaware, and New Mexico, have added powdered alcohol in their statutory definitions of alcohol so that the product can be regulated under existing alcohol regulations. 3)Vaporized alcohol. Existing state law bans the sale or use of any vaporized form of alcohol produced by an alcohol vaporizing device. Vaporized alcohol is alcohol mixed with AB 1554 Page 3 pure oxygen or another gas to produce a vaporized product that can be inhaled. To date, no notable enforcement cost can be attributed to the ban of this type of alcohol. Analysis Prepared by:Luke Reidenbach / APPR. / (916) 319-2081