3430

VETOES

adults and minors of the alcoholic beverages laws a
civil offense; providing for the appeal for adults of
adjudications of a violation; making technical changes;
providing for the suspension of certain persons'
driver's licenses for certain violations of alcoholic
beverage laws; revising certain provisions pertaining
to offenses related to alcoholic beverage offenses;
clarifying language; and generally relating to
decriminalizing the offenses for violations of the
alcoholic beverages laws in this State.

May 27, 1980
Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17 of the
Maryland Constitution, I have today vetoed House Bill 1678.

House Bill 1678 is a major and innovative attempt at
addressing a significant problem, i.e., the unlawful use of
alcohol and the increasingly serious consequences thereof.

I applaud the General Assembly at recognizing the need
for action in this most important area, and I commit my
Administration in assisting that effort in the current
interim and the coming Session. However, as the State's
Attorney for Anne Arundel County indicated while testifying
in support of this measure at the Executive Hearing thereon,
while I share the general concerns which led to the
introduction and passage of this measure, it is abundantly
clear to me that the bill must be given the benefit of
further consideration and refinement before it can
responsibly be signed into law.

By way of example only, although the record is clear
that the General Assembly thought and proclaimed that it was
decriminalizing all alcoholic beverages offenses and
providing an exclusively civil procedure for the handling of
such violations, the Attorney General's careful review of
the bill indicates that it may well be an inadvertent
mixture of (a) the decriminalization of some provisions, (b)
the failure to decriminalize yet other provisions, and (c)
the provision of dual criminal and civil alternatives with
respect to yet other provisions.

Assuming arguendo, that the legislation does
successfully completely decriminalize the alcoholic beverage
laws, both police and police-related organizations have
strenuously objected to the repeal of their arrest powers
and the substitution of a citation procedure therefor.
Indeed, the City Council of Baltimore has felt so strongly