Legislature(2007 - 2008)
03/03/2008 02:42 PM Senate JUD
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB235 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 235-ALCOHOL: LOCAL OPTION/LICENSING/MINORS
CHAIR FRENCH announced the consideration of SB 235.
2:42:47 PM
ANNE CARPENETI, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division,
Department of Law, said SB 235 comes from three sources: the
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, a national
task force on underage drinking, and rural prosecutors
statewide. The provision to prohibit sending alcohol to local
option communities in plastic bottles comes directly from a
recommendation by the Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement
Commission. Diane Casto and Doug Griffin were on that the task
force and would like the committee to consider reinserting
provisions that were removed in the previous committee. Rural
prosecutors have said it's difficult to get convictions in
bootlegging cases and it's discouraging that the penalties
imposed on convicted bootleggers are small.
MS. CARPENETI explained that SB 235 prohibits shipping alcohol
to local option communities unless there's an alcohol delivery
site in the community. Law enforcement and the Rural Justice
Commission were persuaded that it's harder to catch bootleggers
when alcohol is shipped in plastic bottles because the bottles
don't clank and they can be burped so that the liquid doesn't
slosh.
MS. CARPENETI explained that currently bootlegging less than 10
liters of hard liquor and various amounts of wine and beer is a
class A misdemeanor and over that amount is a class C felony.
This bill adopts a three strikes provision such that the penalty
for a third bootlegging offense within 10 years is a class C
felony.
CHAIR FRENCH asked if people are racking up multiple bootlegging
convictions and if so, the volume of cases that might be
expected.
MS. CARPENETI replied the numbers are less than the drunk
driving cases, but that is the case. It's an economic decision
and a way of life for some people. She didn't have the exact
numbers, but she'd supply them later.
MS. CARPENETI explained that the bill adopts mandatory minimum
penalties for bootlegging that are the same as the mandatory
minimum sentences for drunk driving. The only difference is that
under SB 235 the look back for the third offense is 10 years
while the look back for drunk driving is 15 years.
2:46:29 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI referred to page 1, line 10, and questioned
making a felon of a package store clerk who fills an order for
alcohol in plastic containers.
MS. CARPENETI said that would be a mistake rather than
bootlegging, but it would be a class A misdemeanor offense.
Continuing with the overview, she explained that the bill
provides that the people who are subject to these mandatory
terms are eligible for referral to therapeutic courts when it's
appropriate. Also, the bill provides that a person who sells
alcohol in a local option area could be prosecuted for
manslaughter if the alcohol is the direct cause of another
person's death. The language in that provision is similar to a
new law regarding delivery of methamphetamine.
2:49:19 PM
MS. CARPENETI highlighted that the Senate Community and Regional
Affairs (CRA) Committee removed a provision that provides civil
penalties for licensees whose agents or employees are convicted
of furnishing alcohol to minors. That committee believes that
the licensee should not be responsible for the actions of his or
her agent. The Department of Law disagrees and would like this
committee to consider that question also, she said.
SENATOR FRENCH referred to page 5, lines 27-30, and said he'd
like to see any paradigmatic cases from the last several years
so that he can get an idea about the fact patterns the DOL has
in mind. Methamphetamine is one thing but alcohol is another.
"The array of fact patterns that this could be used under
strikes me as being very wide," he said.
MS. CARPENETI replied she finds that interesting because she
sees that the array of fact patterns is narrower than with
methamphetamine. She agreed to provide examples.
2:51:05 PM
DOUG GRIFFIN, Director, Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board,
said he wants to talk about the provision that was removed by
the Senate CRA Committee. That provision set up specific
penalties for licensees selling alcohol to underage persons. The
recommendation came from a national working group he was a
member to that was tasked with addressing the issue of underage
drinking. Because this is a particular problem in Alaska,
there's interest in more aggressive approaches including
compliance checks or "stings." Working with a state trooper the
ABC Board sends underage people into licensed premises to try
and buy alcohol. With enforcement the failure rate has gone from
50 percent to 20 percent and in jurisdictions such as Anchorage,
the failure rate is lower yet. This is still behind the tobacco
sting program, which does asses a penalty against the licensee
for noncompliance.
2:55:08 PM
MR. GRIFFIN said he believes there should be some sort of
penalty to provide a wakeup call to the licensee, but that the
initial fine doesn't need to be extraordinarily high. The idea
is to get licensees to do a better job of screening and training
their employees. He understands the philosophical debate about
liquor licensees not being held responsible for employee
mistakes, but the ABC Board does need the ability to conduct
follow-up checks to ensure that licensees are not continuing to
sell alcohol to underage people.
CHAIR FRENCH reviewed the original bill and said it looks as
though Section 5 was deleted by the Senate CRA Committee.
Mr. Griffin agreed.
2:56:59 PM
DIANE CASTO, Manager, Prevention & Early Intervention Services,
Division of Behavioral Health, Department of Health and Social
Services (DHSS), said that one of the issues her section deals
with is underage drinking, which is why she wants to address the
section of the bill that was removed. Information in the packets
about regulatory strategies for preventing youth access to
alcohol talks about best practices and why it's important to
consider penalties against retailers as part of a multi-strategy
approach to reducing underage drinking.
CHAIR FRENCH said the committee will consider the testimony as a
proposed conceptual amendment.
MS. CASTO explained that in 2002 the National Research Council
(NRC)and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) developed a national
strategy to reduce underage drinking and establish best
practices to accomplish this goal. In 2004 Congress directed the
federal Department of Health and Human Services Committee to
establish an interagency coordinating committee on the
prevention of underage drinking (ICCPUD). All 50 states met and
looked at the interagency concept for the purpose of developing
a similar program within each state. The Alaska Interagency
Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking
(ACCPUD) was formed and developed a draft plan that is available
for public comment. It is broken down into statewide and
community recommendations. Some of the statewide recommendations
were included in the first draft of SB 235. One was to provide
more stringent penalties for alcohol retailers that are more in
line with the tobacco penalties.
3:00:59 PM
MS. CASTO said the bill also addresses the issue of developing a
better tracking system for minor consuming. Currently minor
consuming citations provide limited ways for a judge to know if
this is or is not a first-time offense. The idea is to develop a
statewide tracking system through DMV and attach the information
to a current or future driver's license. This will allow earlier
and more appropriate interventions, she said.
MS. CASTO referred to several reports and calls to action to
reduce alcohol access to youth by having stricter penalties and
enforcement at the retail/server level. That is one of the
recommendations in the state plan, she said. The Youth Risk
Behavior Survey (YRBS), which is done jointly by the Department
of Education and Early Development (DEED) and DHSS, indicates
that in 2007 73.6 percent of students reported having had at
least one alcoholic drink on one or more days in their lifetime
compared to 75.1 percent in 2003. In 2007 20.4 percent of
students reported having had their first alcoholic drink before
the age of 13 compared to 23.2 percent in 2003. The rates of
lifetime dependence on alcohol decline from more than 40 percent
for those who start drinking at 14 years of age or younger to
about 10 percent for those who start drinking at 20 years of age
or older. So the longer kids wait to start drinking the better
chance they will have of not developing a long-term dependence.
3:04:34 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked what's going on that kids start
drinking so early.
MS. CASTO replied there are a number of reasons. Alcohol is
legal, it's fairly easy to access, and it's a way to self-
medicate. In Alaska alcohol is the drug of choice for youth and
there's a public norm that it isn't as bad as other drugs.
Oftentimes when she talks about underage drinking she's told
that it's a right of passage, that all kids will do it, and that
it's okay. That is in spite of the knowledge that alcohol
damages brain development and that the teen years are a critical
time for brain development, she said.
3:07:24 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if this is a problem in other
countries where the legal drinking age is lower.
MS. CASTO opined that the whole culture of eating and alcohol
consumption is viewed differently in other countries. "When it's
part of the culture it's not something that you sneak off to get
and use for the purposes of getting drunk," she said.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI questioned whether this approach gets to
the root of the problem.
3:10:44 PM
MS. CASTO said other countries do have problems with alcohol
abuse it's just not as prevalent as in this country. She
stressed that the two issues that are addressed in the bill
represent a starting point. Changing attitudes about alcohol
will be a multi-strategy approach involving communities,
families, youths, and appropriate laws. Part of the plan is to
look from a broad perspective to start changing some of the
public norms and access. "These solutions are just a tiny piece
of the overall picture," she said.
MS. CASTO said that alcohol is a factor in many things that are
happening with youths: 20 percent or more of youths in the
juvenile justice system have chronic alcohol use, the highest
rate of suicide in Alaska is between 14 and 24 years of age,
alcohol and drugs are a factor in 43.7 percent of all suicides,
and about 11 percent of treatment admissions for alcohol abuse
are for youths between 12 and 20 years of age.
MS. CASTO highlighted the relationship to tobacco enforcement.
When the tobacco sting program started there was a 35 percent
sell rate and by 2007 that had dropped to 9 percent. DHSS
believes that a lot of the reason for the improvement is that
both the business and the clerks are held responsible. That's
why a similar provision with respect to alcohol needs to be a
part of this legislation. "If the business owner…is not being
held responsible, then they don't have the obligation to set the
stage to make it important for their employees to not sell," she
said.
CHAIR FRENCH said that in a future hearing he wants to know
whether other states suspend licenses of businesses caught
selling alcohol to minors.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if the rate of youth smoking has gone
down in that timeframe.
MS. CASTO replied it has, but she doesn't have the numbers
today. According to the youth survey (YRBS) 27 percent bought
their own tobacco products in 1995 and in 2007 only 3 percent
bought their own. Because of the multi-strategy approach, this
country and this state have made great strides with respect to
reducing tobacco use by youths. That approach been employed
nearly as effectively for regulating alcohol, she said.
3:15:18 PM
MS. CASTO said that the tobacco penalties work because they are
consistent and mandatory and both the clerk and the business are
penalized. She added that there is a floor and a ceiling for
mitigating and aggravating factors. She noted that the alcohol
compliance program Mr. Griffin talked about has just one
investigator for the entire state and because of the tobacco
settlement money the tobacco program has three investigators.
Sometimes the tobacco investigators and the participating youths
work cooperatively with the alcohol program. She relayed that a
youth who was turned away when trying to buy cigarettes used the
same ID the next day and was successful buying alcohol on the
package liquor side of the store. "We truly believe that it's
because of the difference in the penalties," she said.
CHAIR FRENCH stated that SB 235 is an important bill and he will
bring it back for further consideration in the near future.
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