BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 819
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Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 819
(Huff) - As Amended June 28, 2016
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|Policy |Governmental Organization |Vote:|15 - 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 requires the Department of Alcoholic Beverage
Control (ABC) to revoke the license of any licensee who
manufactures, distributes, or sells powdered alcohol.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Minor absorbable workload to ABC to monitor and enforce the
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provisions of this bill.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. Proponents of SB 819 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.
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
pure oxygen or another gas to produce a vaporized product that
can be inhaled. To date, no notable enforcement cost can be
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attributed to the ban of this type of alcohol.
4)Related legislation and recent amendments. An earlier version
of AB 1554 (Irwin) of 2016, which is pending in the Senate
Appropriations Committee, was nearly identical to this bill.
Recent amendments to both AB 1554 and SB 819 made the two
bills complementary rather than competing pieces of
legislation. Specifically, the duties of ABC related to the
licensure of manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of
powdered alcohol and the fines established for purchases of
powdered alcohol and sellers of powdered alcohol were divided
between the two bills.
Analysis Prepared by:Luke Reidenbach / APPR. / (916)
319-2081