Party like it's AB 1999
Portantino says immunizing teens from prosecution would encourage underage drinkers to call for help
By Jake Armstrong 09/02/2010
Somewhere between a $5 house party in Altadena and a car ride to South Pasadena, Aydin Salek’s promising future slowly slipped away.
On the cusp of his 18th birthday, the affable South Pasadena High School student already boasted a litany of achievements that teachers, friends and others who knew him believed would serve him well in his quest to become a lawyer and, eventually, sit on the US Supreme Court.
But in just a few hours on Dec. 12, 2009, a course of alcoholic drinks — perhaps vodka and beer, which others at the party were reportedly drinking — put his blood-alcohol level at more than four times the legal limit. That’s a potentially life-threatening amount for an adult, and it proved much worse for a minor like Salek, a student trustee on the South Pasadena Board of Education who rarely if ever drank or attended parties, as his fellow students recalled.
When he collapsed at the house party on West Mariposa Street, hosted by an 18-year-old woman who pleaded not guilty Monday to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the incident, Salek’s friends piled him into a car and headed home, likely thinking his snores along the way were a sign he’d sleep it off.
Then he stopped breathing.
It’s still unclear why his friends took him first to the home of a teen they knew could perform CPR rather than a hospital, though there was no sign of an intentional delay, according to authorities.
But his death that night — and those of other underage drinkers in recent years — provoked a legislative response intended to keep it from happening again, while holding accountable adults who allow it to occur.
One proposal, authored by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino and now awaiting the governor’s signature, would prevent underage drinkers from being prosecuted if they call 911 to report a potential case of alcohol poisoning. Another already signed into law removes an exemption in state law that prevented parents from seeking damages in court from adults who provide teenagers with alcohol.
With nearly one-quarter of teens surveyed reporting they participated in binge drinking last year, Portantino called the response important for public safety and rejected criticism that giving teens immunity from prosecution could create more incentive to drink recklessly. “It encourages them to do the right thing when they are faced with a life-threatening situation,” said Portantino, who knew Salek, once a volunteer for the Obama campaign. “It makes this issue even more personal for me.”
Booze or bust
Despite highly publicized sting operations in which liquor merchants who sell to minors often get exposed and fined, youths continue to obtain alcohol. A total of 40 percent of underage drinkers said they got alcohol free of charge from someone 21 or older in the past 30 days, according to a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism survey.
But parents and even cities in California have faced long odds in successfully going after adults who provide alcohol to youths. State law had barred parents from pursuing civil actions against adults who act as “social hosts” and provide alcohol to a minor, even if it leads to alcohol poisoning.
A bill by Los Angeles Democratic Assemblyman Mike Feuer, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Aug. 18, removed that exemption. However, Feuer said the law’s limited scope makes it more of a deterrent, since it requires families to prove in court that the adult negligently provided alcohol to an underage youth. “Teens continue to die from alcohol poisoning under adult supervision, even though common sense alone should prevent adults from providing alcohol to minors,” Feuer said in a written statement. “This bill promotes responsible behavior, creating a deterrent to adults who might otherwise give teens alcohol.”
The death of Shelby Allen, a 17-year-old Redding student who died of alcohol poisoning in 2008 at a house party where the adult owners were home, prompted Feuer’s bill. Following his death, Allen’s parents sued to get to the bottom of what happened that night, but the exemption in California law stymied the effort.
Cities have also taken up the crackdown on host parties. Last week, Rosemead joined about 40 other cities in the state in enacting local ordinances that make it a crime for youths to drink on private property, even with parental consent.
But in Salek’s case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Nancy Diaz with a misdemeanor count of selling alcohol to someone under 21, which she denied Monday in Pasadena Superior Court.
That charge, filed under the state’s Business and Professions Code, is punishable by a $1,000 fine and no less than 24 hours of community service, or a combination of the two. Diaz’s next appearance is scheduled Sept. 30 in Pasadena Superior Court.
Salek’s family could not be reached for comment.
All the more reason
Not all efforts at curbing binge drinking truly help. A Northwestern University study released earlier this year, for instance, found that public service announcements that attempt to shame underage drinkers out of binge drinking can actually provoke guilt that encourages even more binging.
That news comes as the recent National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism survey shows that alcohol is by far the drug of choice among adolescents, with more students — including 45 percent of high school seniors — reporting they used alcohol in the past month than use of cigarettes and marijuana combined.
Additionally, the survey indicated students are far more likely to binge drink — having five or more drinks on one occasion — as they age, with 29 percent of seniors and 11 percent of eighth-graders reporting they’d binged.
Toxicology reports indicated Salek had a 0.37 blood-alcohol concentration, according to Craig Harvey, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. No other illegal substances were detected in his system. But he could have had the equivalent of more than a dozen vodka shots the night he died of an apparent alcohol overdose.
Portantino believes that’s all the more reason to grant teens limited immunity from legal consequences if they call authorities to report an alcohol-related emergency, as his Assembly Bill 1999 would do.
Modeled after similar legislation in Colorado, New Jersey and Texas, AB 1999 is backed by findings showing that underage drinkers are more likely to call for help for a drunken friend when they do not fear legal consequences. When Cornell University put a medical amnesty plan in place, calls for emergency medical help increased 22 percent, while nearly two-thirds of students said they were less scared to summon help if necessary.
“We just wish that all of our children go out into the world and are safe, and that others around them do the right thing,” said Portantino, whose daughter is a college freshman. “Hopefully, this bill gets the governor’s signature.”
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