Bill > A3492

Introduced Session

This bill concerns the penalties for possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages by underage persons. Under current law, any person under the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages or cannabis items who possesses or consumes alcoholic beverages or cannabis items, marijuana, or hashish in any school, public conveyance, public place, place of public assembly, or motor vehicle is subject to certain consequences, including a written warning by a law enforcement officer to the underage person and if the person is under 18 years of age, a written notification to the person's parent, guardian, or other person having legal custody of the underage person. For certain violations, the law enforcement officer is also to provide informational materials about how to access community services that will assist the person with opportunities to access further social services. Finally, current law provides that the officer is also to take possession of any alcoholic beverage, marijuana, hashish, or cannabis item and any drug or cannabis paraphernalia. This bill reinstates the penalties for possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages by underage persons that were in place prior to the enactment of P.L.2021, c.25 and P.L.2021, c.38 . Under this bill, any person under the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages who possesses or consumes any alcoholic beverage in any school, public conveyance, public place, place of public assembly, or motor vehicle is guilty of a disorderly persons offense and is to be fined not less than $500. In addition, when the offense is committed in a motor vehicle, the court is required to suspend or postpone the driving privileges of the defendant for six months. The court may also require the defendant to participate in an alcohol education or treatment program. Further, current law prohibits certain actions by law enforcement officers with respect to violations for the consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages and marijuana, hashish, or cannabis item by underage persons, including: 1) providing that a person under the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages or cannabis items is not capable of giving lawful consent to a search to determine a violation of current law and prohibiting an officer from requesting that a person consent to such a search; 2) providing that the odor of an alcoholic beverage, marijuana, hashish, or cannabis, or burnt marijuana, hashish, cannabis or cannabis item does not constitute reasonable articulable suspicion to initiate an investigatory stop of a person or probable cause to initiate a search of a person or the person's property to determine a violation of current law and that the unconcealed possession of these items observed in plain sight by an officer does not constitute probable cause to initiate a search of the person or the person's property to determine a further violation of law; 3) providing that an underage person who possesses or consumes alcoholic beverages, marijuana, hashish, or a cannabis item in violation of current law is not to be subject to arrest, transported to a police station, police headquarters, or other place of law enforcement operations and shall not be subject to detention or taken into custody, with certain limited exceptions; 4) prohibiting a law enforcement officer from deactivating a body worn camera at the request of the person who is the subject of a responsive call for service or law enforcement or investigative encounter related to a violation for underage possession or consumption of an alcoholic beverage, cannabis items, marijuana, or hashish; and 5) providing that an underage person who violates current law regarding the possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages, cannabis items, marijuana, or hashish is not to be photographed or fingerprinted. Under this bill, the prohibitions set forth above would not apply to actions taken by law enforcement with respect to the consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages by underage persons. In addition, current law provides that a law enforcement officer is guilty of the crime of official deprivation of civil rights for violating any provisions of current law that address law enforcement actions involving persons who are under the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages or cannabis items. Under this bill, law enforcement actions involving persons who are under the legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages would not be included in this provision. Finally, under current law, the Attorney General is to biannually issue a report detailing the number of occurrences and other statistics concerning first, second, third, and subsequent violations involving the possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages, marijuana, hashish, or cannabis items by underage persons, the municipal, county, or other geographic areas within which first, second, third, and subsequent violations occur, and the law enforcement agencies involved in first, second, third, and subsequent violation, covering the previous six month period. This bill removes the requirement for the report to contain this information regarding the possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages by underage persons as these persons would no longer be issued first, second, third and subsequent violations under the bill.

AI Summary

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Paul Kanitra (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee (on 02/05/2024)

Official Document