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Source: Record Searchlight

By: Scott Mobley

Date: September 29, 2010

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation championed by a Redding family whose daughter died from alcohol poisoning.

Assembly Bill 1999 would grant limited immunity from prosecution to underage drinkers seeking medical help for themselves or their peers.

Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada/Flintridge) introduced the bill in February, noting several underage drinkers have recently died of alcohol poisoning. They might have survived had their friends not been afraid to call an ambulance, he said.

Debbie Allen, whose 17-year-old daughter Shelby Lyn Allen died of alcohol poisoning just before Christmas 2008, has supported and publicized the bill.

“Not everyone will need this,” Allen said. “But some underage drinkers are afraid to get help because they don’t want to get into trouble, and this takes the trouble out of the picture. Whatever it takes to save a life.”

An underage drinker who calls 911 to report possible alcohol poisoning and cooperates with paramedics and law enforcement once they arrive will be immune from prosecution, under the law. Underage drinking is otherwise a misdemeanor.

AB 1999 is a companion to another bill Schwarzenegger signed in August that eliminates immunity for adults who knowingly supply alcohol to minors.

Allen and her husband, Steve, had also sought the “social host” law, written by Los Angeles Democrat Mike Feuer.

Shelby Allen, a popular Foothill High School junior, was found dead on a bathroom floor at the home of Wallace and Debby Liberman east of Redding.

Shelby Allen died after a bout of intense drinking with the Libermans’ now 18-year-old daughter and another teen. The rest of the Liberman family slept upstairs while the teens drank, sheriff’s deputies said.

Shasta County prosecutors had charged the Liberman teen with involuntary manslaughter in Allen’s death, but a juvenile court judge dismissed the case in November.

The Record Searchlight has not identified the teen because she was a minor when her friend died.

Shelby Allen became ill after drinking 15 shots of vodka in about an hour, according to a court document.

Allen’s two friends took her into the bathroom where she vomited into the toilet. Allen eventually passed out on her knees with her head resting on the toilet seat.

The girls put a towel under her so she could lie on it, the document said.

The Liberman teen stayed with Allen until she believed her friend was fine and checked on her two times before morning. Allen had not moved, according to the court document.

The third girl, who had also become ill, checked Allen later in the morning and thought she wasn’t breathing, according to the court document.

An older sister of the Liberman teen alerted her father, who called 911 and began CPR.

Learn how to how to prevent underage drinking in an alcohol establishment.

A: No state laws addressing this; some municipalities (towns, villages, cities) may have local ordinances. Municipalities may enact ordinances not in conflict with state law; since state law is silent, some municipalities may have enacted ordinances – please have client check with municipal clerk/police in which they are licensed

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The State of Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol & Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) enforces and maintains the integrity of the alcohol and gambling industries. As part of that ongoing enforcement, the Retail Alcohol Vendor Enforcement (RAVE) began as a pilot program specific to Anoka County in September 2008. RAVE has since been met with such an overwhelming positive response from both the law enforcement and licensed beverage communities that it has expanded to include Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Sherburne, Washington and Wright counties.

The RAVE program focuses on better educating liquor licensees in an effort to stop the service of alcohol to obviously intoxicated persons and reduce the number of alcohol-related traffic crashes and DWI arrests. When violations of state liquor statutes are found, enforcement is primarily handled by using a civil administrative process instead of traditional criminal sanctions.

The RAVE program supports the DPS-sponsored NightCAP and Safe & Sober impaired driving enforcement campaigns by making in-person contact with licensed liquor establishments during the enforcement periods. AGED agents advise on the RAVE program and provide educational material which includes posters, coasters, cocktail napkins, and a pamphlet explaining Minnesota’s liquor laws. AGED agents also use the opportunities to specifically answer any questions from liquor license employees, offer server training assistance and review the Responsibility of the Licensee and Sales to Obviously Intoxicated Persons statutes which state:

340A.501 Responsibility of Licensee. Every licensee is responsible for the conduct in the licensed establishment and; any sale of alcoholic beverage by any employee authorized to sell alcoholic beverages in the establishment is the act of the licensee for the purposes of all provisions of this chapter except section 340A.701, 340A.702 and 340A.703.

340A.502 Sales to Obviously Intoxicated Persons. No person may sell, give, furnish or in any way procure for another an alcoholic beverage for the use of an obviously intoxicated person.

Additionally, AGED agents attend NightCAP and Safe & Sober briefings at which they request law enforcement officers to notify AGED agents of any DWI arrest where the driver has had a alcohol concentration of 0.16 or more; any DWI arrest involving a property damage or personal injury accident; and/or any alcohol-related arrest or incident involving an underage person, where the arrested person has indicated to have last consumed alcohol at a specific establishment in the NightCAP and/or Safe & Sober area.

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A study group wants to change the way alcohol is perceived and consumed in Wisconsin. The group came up with 49 recommendations for state and local governments, communities, employers and educators. Alcohol Culture and Environment Workgroup’s suggestions include adding sobriety checkpoints throughout the community, limiting alcohol advertising in the various municipalities, changing the law that allows parents to buy their children alcohol and adopting ordinances that ban competitions and games as well as the use of beer bongs and similar devices in licensed establishments as these encourage swift consumption of alcohol. The workgroup is comprised of public policy experts, attorneys, elected officials, law enforcement, local leaders, educators and others.

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