• Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS)
  This project, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health, is the creation and expansion of a publicly accessible web site to catalyze new, broader and more rigorous research on alcohol policy (available at http://alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/). The website offers information and analyses of Federal and State alcohol policies, including those related to prevention, education, and recovery/treatment. The Center's primary responsibility within APIS, as a subcontractor to The CDM Group, is to research and prepare analyses of selected alcohol policy areas that highlight comparisons among States. These analyses feature policy summaries, statutory and regulatory provisions, and reference lists for researchers.
  
  • Alcohol Policy Information System
  • The CDM Group, Inc.
  
  
• National Center for Alcohol Law Enforcement (NCALE)
  The National Center for Alcohol Law Enforcement (NCALE) provides comprehensive alcohol law enforcement training and technical assistance to municipal, county, and state law enforcement agencies. Funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the U.S. Department of Justice, the Center seeks to increase and improve alcohol law enforcement activity nationwide to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related problems. Specifically, NCALE works to increase enforcement of alcohol laws that are most likely to reduce alcohol-related injuries and violence, including those that address sales to intoxicated persons, sale practices that encourage intoxication, public nuisance standards applicable to problem establishments, and enforcement of minimum purchase age laws. Law enforcement strategies for addressing settings for high risk drinking such as areas surrounding college campuses and areas along the borders of Native American reservations also receive a special emphasis.
  • The National Center for Alcohol Law Enforcement : Overview
  • Enforcement of Laws Prohibiting Alcohol Sales to Intoxicated Patrons (Wisconsin)
  • Alcohol Laws: Vigorous Enforcement Works
  
  
• Alcohol Enforcement Best Practices Demonstration Project
  This project, funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducted through a partnership with the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association (NLLEA). The project goal is to assess the role of enforcement of alcohol laws in preventing alcohol problems. In its first phase, Center staff interviewed the chief enforcement officers of State Alcoholic Beverage Control agencies to obtain information on the agencies' structures, resources, and enforcement practices. The interviews were augmented with a fifty State (plus District of Columbia) legal analysis of key alcohol policies, available at www.nllea.org/reports.htm . The project staff have prepared reports summarizing findings from the ABC agency interviews, initiated and reported field studies of the effectiveness of specific alcohol law enforcement strategies in reducing alcohol-related problems, and assessed the feasibility of establishing a national database of alcohol law enforcement data.  Ongoing analysis and reporting of enforcement strategies is in process.
  
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • National Liquor Law Enforcement Association
  • Alcohol Beverage Control Enforcement: Legal Research Report
  • Preventing Over-consumption of Alcohol - Sales to the Intoxicated and "Happy Hour" (Drink Special) Laws
  • Research Report: The Role of Alcohol Beverage Control Agencies in the Enforcement and Adjudication of Alcohol Law
  
  
• Enforcing Alcohol Laws: Reducing Over-Consumption
  This project, funded by NIAAA, is a three-year study of the impact of enforcing laws that restrict drink special practices and prohibit sales to intoxicated persons on the serving practices of retail, on-premise alcohol establishments--high-risk venues for alcohol-related problems. The specific aims of the study are to determine the extent to which increased enforcement results in higher compliance with sales to intoxicated patrons and drink special laws, and whether increased compliance can be achieved by minimal levels of enforcement. Analysis of the resulting data will not only address enforcement levels and compliance rates, but will examine whether the magnitude and statistical significance of the enforcement intervention effects vary by community size or the percent of the college-aged population. The project will break new ground not only by examining the impact of enforcing drink special laws, but also by studying drink special laws in tandem with sales to intoxicated persons laws.
  
  
• Legal and Enforcement Options for Reducing Youth Exposure to Alcohol Marketing
  Research demonstrates that alcohol industry marketing practices target young people, putting them at risk for alcohol problems. Local, State and Federal governments have authority to regulate these marketing activities and some states have passed statutes to limit youth exposure. This project, funded by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, analyzedcurrent laws and their enforcement and develops model policies to reduce youth exposure to alcohol marketing. The Center's first product was a 51- jurisdiction study of 12 distinct types of state alcohol advertising laws. The Center also offers technical assistance to State and local coalitions and is conducting an analysis of the implications of the First Amendment commercial free speech doctrine on State and local regulatory reform.
  • 51 Jurisdiction State Alcohol Advertising Laws
  • Background information on Model Ordinance on Alcohol Sponsorship
  • Model Ordinance Restricting Alcohol Beverage Sponsorship and Sponsorship Signs at Certain Municipally Sponsored Events Held in Public Parks
  • Model State Statute for Regulating Billboard and other Forms of Outdoor Alcohol Advertising (With Commentaries)
  • Constitutionally Defensible Restrictions on Alcohol Advertising and Alcohol Sponsorship in State Publications and on State Owned or State-Leased Lands
  • Model Statutory Language Restricting Alcohol Advertising and Alcohol Sponsorship in State Publications and on Property Owned, Leased, or Operated by the State
  • Protecting Underage Youth by Restricting Alcohol Industry Sponsorship and Signage at Community Events: First Amendment Considerations
  • Individual State Authority to Protect Underage Youth by Regulating Placement of Alcohol Advertising Based on Statutory Provisions that Prohibit Unfair Competition
  • Analysis of Industry Voluntary Advertising Codes
  
  
• Alcohol and Pregnancy:
  Preventing FASD: The Implementation and Impact of State Policies
  This research study is the first step in a larger implementation project to investigate whether pregnant women are inhibited or encouraged to seek substance abuse treatment and general prenatal health services  under U.S. state laws that are either public health or punitively-oriented. Positive birth outcomes and reduction in the incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are dependent on the ability and incentives for women to cease or limit alcohol use during their pregnancies. Previous research by the study team has identified two policy approaches for preventing FASD. Public health-oriented laws seek to inform and educate the populace about the dangers to fetuses of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and make treatment more accessible.  Punitively-oriented laws restrain women from drinking during the months of pregnancy by involving them in the child welfare and criminal justice systems. Despite claims by advocates of both approaches, there are no research studies that assess their relative merits and effects.  This study will systematically assess the effects of a mixed set of laws in one state, California, as a  pilot study. With both public health and punitive laws, California provides a microcosm for assessing issues of accessibility and availability of treatment, incentives for women to abstain or limit drinking, and issues of implementation consistency and rigor.   

Alcohol Use in Pregnancy: State Responses to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
This project, funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was developed to investigate five research questions:  (1) how many States in the U.S. have enacted policy to address the issue of alcohol use during pregnancy? (2) what type of policies predominate across jurisdictions - those that facilitate public health goals or those that mandate punitive policies? (3) Within the broad categories of public health and punitive policy enactments, are certain types of policies more likely to be enacted than others? For example, are States more likely to adopt laws that offer general public education about alcohol use during pregnancy than those that provide treatment for pregnant women with alcohol abuse problems? (4) Are jurisdictions sending mixed messages to pregnant women by enacting both public health and punitive laws? (5) Borrowing from political science research, is the proportion of women in state legislatures related to adoption of public health-oriented policies on this subject? Results of the research indicate that while States have enacted a greater number of public health than punitive provisions, the numbers tell only part of the story.  The types of public health provisions are generally not those providing intervention and treatment for women in need.  Additionally, the proportion of women in legislatures across the nation is positively correlated with adoption of public health provisions.  For additional information, click here.

The implications of these findings are addressed in several reports and publications, some of which are available below.

• RWJs Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP)
• Western Political Science Association 2004 Annual Conference: Alcohol And Pregnancy Policy: Gendered Aspects Of State Legislative Policy Choices
• American Public Health Association 2005 Annual Conference: Governmental Responses to Alcohol Use during Pregnancy: Public Health Approaches, Punitive Approaches, & Prospects for the Future

• Social Host Liability Ordinances and Statutes Projects
  These projects, funded by the Training, Applied Research, and Alcohol and Drug Prevention Division of the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department in association with Ventura County Limits, a Community Partnership for Responsible Alcohol Policies and Practices, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, among others, have resulted in the development of a model social host law ordinance to assist local governments and other community agencies to address the serious and persistent problems associated with underage drinking parties, and several analyses and presentations of social hosts ordinances in California and nationwide. The model ordinance, which is available below, contains commentary and explains fully the options of cities and counties to recover from party hosts, tenants, landowners, and/or landlords the costs incurred by municipalities when law enforcement, fire, or other emergency responders are compelled to respond multiple times to disperse these gatherings. Materials developed for MADD can be found at http://www.madd.org/Parents/Parents/Programs/View-Program.aspx?program=20.

• Model Social Host Liability Ordinance, September 2005
• Coast to Coast Responsible Hosts: The Nationwide Movement to Reduce Underage Drinking Parties - 2008 APHA Powerpoint Slides PowerPoint Presentation: Social Host Ordinances: An Effective Strategy for Reducing Underage Drinking on Private Property
• Drafting Social Host Laws:  A Checklist
• Social Host Laws in a Nutshell:  California
• Social Host Presentation at 2006 APHA2006 APHA SH Presentation
• Social Host Survey 
• Social Host Court Cases

• Alcohol Litigation Project
  This project, funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, analyzed the lessons learned from the tobacco litigation experience and their potential applicability to alcohol policy. Legal researchers assessed theories of liability, evidentiary requirements, the role of the press and public opinion, among other topics, based on an examination of legal materials, press accounts, and key informant interviews. Reports and related materials, especially on Alcopops, are available below.
  
  • American Public Health Association 2004 Annual Meeting Paper - Implications of Tobacco Litigation for Alcohol Policy
  • Briefing Paper: Flavored Alcoholic Beverages and the Youth Market: Are State Laws Being Violated?
  • Classification of Flavored Alcoholic Beverages: California Writ of Mandate
  • Classification of Flavored Alcoholic Beverages: California Writ of Mandate
        Declaration of James F. Mosher
  • Marin Institute: Alcohol Industry Loses Alcopop Tax Battle in California
  • California Alcoholic Beverage Control Department's Answer to Petition for Writ of Mandate
  • Petitioner's Response to ABC Department's Answer to Writ
  • FMB Coalition's Amicus Curiae Brief
  • Espinoza Declaration in Opposition to Writ
  • Presentation to the Governmental Organization Committee, February 14, 2006
  • Petitioner's Answer to Amicus Brief (First of Four Parts)
  • Petitioner's Answer to Amicus Brief (Second of Four Parts)
  • Petitioner's Answer to Amicus Brief (Third of Four Parts)
  • Petitioner's Answer to Amicus Brief (Fourth of Four Parts)
  • Writ filed with the California Supreme Court
  • The Legal Framework for Alcohol Regulation in the United States
  • OJJDP Presentation
  • Alcohol Policy 14 Presentation

For futher information about Alcopops, click here.

• Assessing State Readiness To Act On Alcohol Tax Research Findings
  This Targeted Response Grant, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation?s Substance Abuse Policy Research Program, was designed to increase the impact of research findings on legislative action regarding alcohol tax policy and related revenue measures. The project is an urgent priority because of exigencies in the political climate that temporarily increase the potential for research findings to influence alcohol tax policy making. Specifically, the enormity of budget deficits in most states is forcing legislatures to consider increasing taxes and reducing restrictions on alcohol sales. As legislatures debate these issues, they are being influenced by information about the effects of tax increases and increased sales, usually information that is only provided by the alcohol industry. The results of this project provide independent state-level research to help policymakers make decisions best for their States. 
  • Assessing State Readiness - Final Report