Veh. Code, § 23224 · Article 2. Offenses Involving Alcohol and Drugs
Veh. Code, § 23224
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) No person under 21 years of age shall knowingly drive any motor vehicle carrying any alcoholic beverage, unless the person is accompanied by a parent, responsible adult relative, any other adult designated by the parent, or legal guardian for the purpose of transportation of an alcoholic beverage, or is employed by a licensee under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (Division 9 (commencing with Section 23000) of the Business and Professions Code), and is driving the motor vehicle during regular hours and in the course of the person’s employment. If the driver was unaccompanied, they shall have a complete defense if they were following, in a timely manner, the reasonable instructions of a parent, legal guardian, responsible adult relative, or adult designee relating to disposition of the alcoholic beverage.
(b) No passenger in any motor vehicle who is under 21 years of age shall knowingly possess or have under that person’s control any alcoholic beverage, unless the passenger is accompanied by a parent, legal guardian, responsible adult relative, any other adult designated by the parent, or legal guardian for the purpose of transportation of an alcoholic beverage, or is employed by a licensee under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (Division 9 (commencing with Section 23000) of the Business and Professions Code), and possession or control is during regular hours and in the course of the passenger’s employment. If the passenger was unaccompanied, they shall have a complete defense if they were following, in a timely manner, the reasonable instructions of a parent, legal guardian, responsible adult relative or adult designee relating to disposition of the alcoholic beverage.
(c) If the vehicle used in any violation of subdivision (a) or (b) is registered to an offender who is under 21 years of age, the vehicle may be impounded at the owner’s expense for not less than one day nor more than 30 days for each violation.
(d) Any person convicted for a violation of subdivision (a) or (b) is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished upon conviction by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 505, Sec. 14. (SB 485) Effective January 1, 2020.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=23224.
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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