This spring the Youth Council was asked by the Marin Institute to co-sponsor California Assembly Bill 1598, which would ban alcoholic energy drinks. Youth Council member Paul Vancea has single-handedly taken on this project. He has educated himself on the issue, how to lobby, organized rallies here in San Diego to bring attention to the matter, and traveled to Sacramento to represent us on the floor of the State Assembly.
Here are pictures from the rally Paul organized on April 1, 2010.
AB 1598 Rally in Downtown San Diego
AB 1598 Rally in Downtown San Diego
AB 1598 Rally in Downtown San Diego
Also, here is an email from Paul about his latest trip to Sacramento on April 12, 2010 to provide testimony in support of AB 1598.
The trip to Sacramento was really good. We got to speak with the G.O. assembly members. It was nice, like in a court. Jim Beall talked about AB1598 and then there were a few of us that spoke in favor of the bill, trying to persuade the GO members to ban AEDs. And after we were done, producers of AEDs took turn to persuade the GO members to not ban AEDs. And then they were going back and forth. The members kept asking questions on each side. But in the end we only got 3 votes. We needed 6 more.
Paul