NC House votes to ban powdered alcohol
By Colin Campbell
ccampbell@newsobserver.com
04/27/2015 8:07 PM
The state House voted 83-32 Monday evening to ban the sale of powdered alcohol in North Carolina.
Sold under the brand name Palcohol, the product was approved by federal regulators last year. It comes in packets that can be poured into other beverages to make mixed drinks. It can also be snorted, allowing consumers to get drunk within minutes.
“It is a product that is dangerous, a product that we don’t want to have in our state,” said Rep. Shelly Willingham, a Rocky Mount Democrat and the bill’s sponsor. “You can put it in your food, you can put it in your coffee – anything you can do with Kool-Aid you can do with this.”
If Willingham’s bill becomes law, North Carolina would join 26 other states that have already banned powdered alcohol. The bill goes next to the Senate.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article19766055.html#storylink=cpy
Current Issues pending in General Assembly:
The legislature adjourned the 2017 “long” session at 2:00 a.m. on the morning of June 30, 2017, wrapping up an approximate 6-month session that began January 11, 2017. This legislative session marked the first in four years where the legislature was controlled by the Republicans and the Executive Branch was controlled by the Democrats. The Republican legislature held a veto-proof majority in both the House and Senate, and exercised that advantage five times by the end of the June, by overriding Governor Cooper’s vetoes of various legislation. It is anticipated that Governor Cooper will veto additional legislation, and the legislature could have the opportunity to override additional vetoes in the next month or so. Governor Cooper has until July 30 to either sign or veto a bill that was approved by the legislature in the last days of the legislative session; otherwise it would become law without his signature.
When the legislature adjourns its "long session" in odd-numbered years, lawmakers typically do not return in a formal legislative session until the "short session" begins the following spring. Not this year. The adjournment resolution adopted by the House and Senate as one of their last acts of the session adds two more legislative sessions this year - one starting on August 3, and another starting on September 6. In the August session, the legislature could address a variety of topics, including overriding any vetoes from Governor Roy Cooper, making appointments, approving bills currently in negotiations between the House and Senate or bills involving impeachment of an elected official, and responding to lawsuits -- including any court order on redistricting. The September session will likely focus on state legislative redistricting, and the legislature could consider redistricting plans for judicial and prosecutorial districts as well. A plan to redraw judicial districts that was released this week did not move forward this session due to strong opposition from judges and others. The September session could also involve appointments, veto overrides, referendums on constitutional amendments and impeachment matters. The adjournment resolution also includes a final deadline of November 15 for court-order legislative redistricting to be completed. However, the process could happen much earlier depending on the deadlines imposed by judges.
Once these 2017 sessions are adjourned, the General Assembly is scheduled to be out of session until they reconvene on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 12:00 noon for the 2018 “short” session.
This Final Legislative Report for 2017 includes a summary of all of the bills enacted by this year's General Assembly that are of interest to the association, and some bills that were considered but not enacted.
North Carolina Spirits Association
Final Legislative Report
2017
3/13/15
To All,
Please be aware that once again a Store tastings Bill is being discussed at the Committee level in NC. That’s good but it has a long way to go. The NCSA strongly supports this initiative.
Some background:House Bill 178 (Spirituous Liquor Tastings/ABC stores) has now been filed. In addition, Senate Bill 236 (Spirituous Liquor Tastings/ABC stores) has also been filed, in addition to the previously reported Senate Bill 171 (Spirituous Liquor Tastings/ABC stores). These bills are all the same. We have no explanation for why there are two Senate bills. HB 178 has been referred to the House ABC Committee. Note that neither of the House ABC Committee Chairman are sponsors of the bill. SB 171 was “held as filed” and was not formally introduced or referred to a Committee. SB 236 has been referred to Senate Rules Committee, as has many other bills, so this is not necessarily a negative indication on the part of the Senate. These bill allows a local board the option to permit a tasting to be conducted at its stores. The Association supports local option liquor tastings in ABC stores under certain conditions. PC
Links to current legislation:
NC Update11/6/20
RECAP OF OUR NORTH CAROLINA SPIRITS ASSOCIATION’S FIRST LEGISLATIVE RECEPTION 4/14/15
On behalf of President Paul Criscuolo, our Board of Directors, our Lobbyists, and myself a sincere “thank you” to everyone who attended and made donations to our first Legislative Reception this past week. Over half of our membership attended this Legislative Reception. Even with the threat of rain and thundershowers we had very good turnout. Over 59 legislators RSVP’d and the caterer said we had over 125 attendees including our Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, State Senators and their senior staff people, State Representatives and their senior staff people, a majority of our North Carolina ABC Association Board of Directors, and “special guest Mike Herring”.
I received numerous positive comments from our guests that the reception was a great success and the food and beverages were outstanding. Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest was the master of ceremonies and welcomed everyone to his office/ceremonial home. He asked everyone to support The Underage Imitative and Talk It out Program for our teenagers. President Criscuolo stated that our N.C.S.A. unanimously voted to support both programs and our Association has paid for in store signage for all ABC Stores in N.C. This will be followed up by brochures delivered to our “mixed beverage customers” this fall.
We want to thank our two lobbyists, Kristen and Scott Laster, for their hard work in helping to bring this reception from a proposal to reality. I personally felt it was a success for our first attempt and hope we can do a second reception for the next session.
Bill Hester
Administrator
North Carolina Spirits Association
4/16/15
Proposed HB971
On 4/4/23 Walter Jordan wrote:
Below are two ABC bills introduced yesterday in the Senate, containing provisions requested by us, thanks to David Ferrell and Mike Yates for meeting with members of the Senate and advancing our agendas.
https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/Senate/PDF/S489v0.pdf
https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/Senate/PDF/S490v0.pdf
Another bill, to address the split case fee for beer and wine wholesalers.
https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/Senate/PDF/S526v0.pdf
Please scroll down to see archived reports
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