Bill makes giving alcohol to minors a felony-if injury or death occurs

This years budget-strapped legislative session has also imposed some time restraints that make it tougher for bills to make it from one chamber to the next.
Of of the bills now moved from the Senate to the House would punish more severly people who transfer alcohol to minors, if it results in great bodily injury or death.
It’s Pickens Senator Larry Martin’s answer to recent high profile incidents in the Upstate,in which he says, “young people were given access to alcohol and either died from asphyxiation or they died from an automobile accident where intoxication was the cause or the approximate cause of the accident.”
Martin’s bill makes it a felony for giving alcohol to an underage person..if they suffer great bodily harm or if they die–except for one minor provision:
“What we did is, the great bodily injury provision, we made that a misdemeanor if it’s an underage person that’s charged,” he explains. “If it’s an over 21-year-old that’s charged, it would be a felony. If it results in death and it’s an underage person that is charged, that would be a felony.”
This bill is scheduled for the House floor next week.