Del. Jay Jaccobs, R-Kent, among a small number of Republicans to support the grain alcohol ban. “There’s no other purpose for grain alcohols except to get really drunk.”
Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to sign a bill that bans the sale of 190-proof grain alcohols in Maryland beginning July 1.
Both chambers in Annapolis have overwhelming passed a bill in an effort to stem the tide of epidemic alcohol abuse on college campuses in the state. A source close to the legislation said O’Malley is likely to sign the bill.
Similar bills in 2009 and 2010 passed the Senate but failed to clear the House.
The bill was heavily lobbied for this session by a newly formed collaborative of 10 Maryland colleges and universities that claim an epidemic of sexual assaults and deaths on college campuses is significantly tied to overdoses of “Jungle Juice” — a concoction of 190-proof grain alcohol and fruit juices that has become a quick and cheap way for students to get high.
“They fill a garbage can with a whole bunch of different flavored liquids and grain alcohol,” said Dr. David Jernigan of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Many times they end up sleeping with someone they didn’t plan to [or] they need a hospital transport for acute alcohol poisoning. In the acute phase the brain basically shuts down.”
The University of Maryland Diamondback recently reported that 100 students so far this year have required ambulatory transports related to alcohol.
The bill is aimed at grain alcohols like Gem Clear, EverClear and Golden Grain, which are 95 percent alcohol by volume — odorless and tasteless — and easily concealed with juice mixes or sodas.
Ever Clear on the shelf at a local liquor store in Chestertown
Jernigan said that many students know the punch is spiked but they don’t realize that these products are more than twice as potent as straight vodka — until it’s too late.
In their appearances before House and Senate committees last month, university officials from the collaborative cited statistics from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that claim high potency grain alcohols play a major roll in over 1,800 deaths and 97,000 sexual assaults on college campuses annually.
The law will carry penalties of up to $1,000 for anyone selling 190-proof alcohol — but it will not prohibit anyone of legal drinking age in Maryland from possessing it.
Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and 13 other states have also banned or restricted the sale of 190-proof grain alcohols.
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