BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1554
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1554 (Irwin) - As Introduced January 4, 2016
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|Policy |Governmental Organization |Vote:|18 - 0 |
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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
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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
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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