Advocates Across the County Work to Reclassify Youth Appealing Alcohol Beverages

Exciting developments are under way across the nation to reclassify sugary, sweet alcopops, or flavored malt beverages, from their current beer tax classification to a more appropriate distilled spirit tax classification.  Success in this reclassification effort will help prevent youth access to these soda-pop tasting, alcohol-laden beverages because taxing them at a higher rate will make them less affordable to youth.  Success will also result in removing them from shelves of thousands of retail outlets.

In California alone, alcopops are available in an almost 15,000 additional outlets due to its beer misclassification.  And the state is losing an estimated $40 million in tax revenue that would be gained from proper classification.  So the California Coalition on Alcopops and Youth, which includes groups such as MADD-California, the Girl Scout Councils of California, and Friday Night Live Partnership, took action.  With a major campaign reaching every branch of government, this Coalition has enjoyed great recent success.  Leading the way, four young people from California Friday Night Live Partnership and California Youth Council filed a petition with the State taxing agency, the Board of Equalization, requesting reclassification.  After the testimony of youth leaders at a hearing this past December, the Board of Equalization voted 3-2 to reconsider the current classification.  This decision generated statewide media coverage and led to an interview with Elliana Yanger and Jimmy Jordan on NPR’s All Things Considered. 

Another development is under way in the California courts.  On Nov. 15, 2006, Santa Clara County filed a lawsuit against the Board of Equalization for the misclassification of alcopops as beer instead of distilled spirits.  In support of the Coalition’s efforts, the case was taken on a pro-bono basis by the San Francisco law firm of Renne, Sloan, Holtzman & Sakai. 

Nebraska advocates are also moving this issue forward in the courts. In October 2006, Project Extra Mile, headed by Diane Riibe, along with an Omaha mother and two teenage girls, filed a lawsuit contending that alcopops should be classified and taxed as distilled spirits instead of beer.  Project Extra Mile has worked tirelessly this past year to garner support for reclassification by reaching out to leaders in almost every community across Nebraska for support.

Most recently, the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association launched a campaign to address the popularity of Alcopops with young people in their state.  Letters were sent to every lawmaker urging him or her to prohibit advertising of alcopops in publications and on broadcasts with a large teen audience. 

With all of these developments under way, 2007 should be an exciting year for changing policy around these youth-appealing alcoholic beverages and enhancing public health.  For more information, please see visit  http://www.cslep.org/info.aspx?ID=76

By:

Jim Mosher, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

July Walsh-Jackson, San Diego Alcohol Policy Panel

Allyson Hauck, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Gary Najarian, Marin County Department of Health and Human Services