April 2, 2007

Marketing of flavored alcohol drinks to youth needs to stop

By Assembly member Jim Beall
Special to the Times

Walk into any convenience store and you will see them. Brightly colored drinks with catchy labels next to the soda pop. Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, Tequiza, Sparks and Tilt.

These beverages are the latest brand of soda, right? Unfortunately, most of these products sometimes referred to as flavored alcoholic beverages have alcohol content around 5 percent, stronger than normal beers. Alcohol manufacturers add flavorings and sweeteners to create a sweet, fruity taste that masks the flavor of alcohol.

Disturbingly, statistics show that underage teenage girls are the leading group to consume these drinks.

The recent explosion of alcohol products designed to appeal specifically to young people has dramatically increased underage drinking. The most recent products targeting youth actually add alcohol to popular energy drinks.

To combat this issue, I introduced Assembly Bill 346 to deter underage drinking by making it harder for youth to obtain these products. Underage drinking continues to be a problem in California. Alcoholic beverages marketed toward adolescent girls have substantially increased over the past decade. Underage drinkers consumed 12.4 percent of all alcohol sold in California, totaling $2.3 billion in sales. These sales provide profits of approximately $1.1 billion to the alcohol industry.

California and its governmental subdivisions have initiated numerous programs and public awareness campaigns to prevent alcohol problems with minors, but this is countered by the targeted marketing of these products towards youth
AB 346 would require these products to have a prominent label stating: “Warning: Contains Alcohol” and a label on the front of the container that states the alcohol content by volume. Current product labeling and packaging in some cases makes it nearly impossible to determine whether these products contain alcohol and, if they do, you can't tell their alcohol content.

It addition, the bill would prohibit retailers from displaying alcopops within 5 feet of any nonalcoholic beverage, placing them in refrigerated coolers or tubs, and selling them at gas stations. It also would prohibit self-illuminated advertising on buildings or windows.

The earlier a young person begins to consume alcoholic beverages, the more likely it is that he or she will experience alcohol problems throughout life. Research has shown that, compared with persons who wait until 21 years of age or older to begin drinking, those who start to drink before 15 years of age are at far greater risk of alcohol problems later in life, including alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, assault and other types of injuries.

Mental illnesses often appear for the first time during the teenage years. Alcohol intensifies emotions such as anger, violent behavior or depression. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the biggest risk factors contributing to attempted adolescent suicide include a history of depression, alcohol or other drug use. Alcohol and depression are a deadly combination. If you would like more information about AB 346, please visit my Web site at http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a24/.