BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     SB 819  


                                                                    Page  1





          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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          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  








                                                                     SB 819  


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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  








                                                                     SB 819  


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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