California

December 2003: Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles City Board of Education

In December 2003, the Los Angeles City Board of Education unanimously adopted a resolution to support Assembly Bill 216 ("Casey's Law"), then under consideration in the California Legislature, to protect the health and safety of California children. The Board referred to national and local statistics on underage drinking, including that youth alcohol problems are estimated to cost California $6.1 billion every year. "Casey's Law" was not voted into law by the Legislature. See the resolution.

October 2003: Sacramento, CA
California Prevention Collaborative

The California Prevention Collaborative (CPC) adopted a resolution in support of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations in the "Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility" report. CPC also advocated using the IOM report recommendations to work on the problems caused by underage drinking in California and resolved to distribute this resolution to all members of the California Legislature as well as to Governor Gray Davis and Governor-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. A number of prevention advocates and organizations then endorsed the CPC resolution by signing it at the Prevention Summit on October 20-21, 2003. Sharon O'Hara, CPC vice chairperson, presented this resolution as part of her testimony before a legislative committee. See the resolution.

July 2003: Marin County, CA
Complaint against Smirnoff Mouse Advertisement

The Marin Institute, an alcohol policy group that uses grassroots and media advocacy efforts, protested via its Web site, www.marininstitute.org, that a current Smirnoff vodka print advertisement featured a mouse that closely resembled the animated character, Stuart Little, of recent children's films. The Marin Institute primarily complained that, by using this Stuart Little-like mouse in its ad, Diageo, the maker of Smirnoff vodka, was violating the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) "Code of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing." The DISCUS Code prohibits the use of objects, images, or cartoon figures that "are popular predominately with children." In July 2003, the Marin Institute was informed that DISCUS had already received a complaint about this ad and had decided to pull the advertisement in April 2003. The Marin Institute continues to ask why this advertisement was issued in the first place. See the advertisement.