On-Site Drug Sales Peril to Liquor License : Narcotics: New law effective next week will greatly shorten period in which officials may put establishments out of commission.

Owners of bars and other liquor outlets who knowingly allow drug dealers to operate on their premises could have their liquor licenses confiscated in as little as 10 days under a law that takes effect next week, a state legislator who authored the measure said Thursday.

Standing in front of a closed-up Boyle Heights lounge where there were frequent arrests for drug use, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said the new law dramatically shortens the period it takes for state and local officials to seize a license.

Katz explained that under the current law, owners are allowed to fight the confiscation process in court, which can take up to three years. Throughout that time, he said, drug sales can continue.

“There will be no more courtroom tricks” to delay the seizing of liquor licenses, said Katz, who was joined by community leaders who had helped push the bill through the Legislature. “Too many neighborhoods are suffering.”

The assemblyman said there has been a “significant increase” in the amount of drugs being dealt out of bars, adding that in the first four months of 1989 there was a 240% increase in the number of liquor licenses the state has moved to revoke because of drug sales.

Katz said the bar behind him was an example of how difficult it is for the state to revoke a license under the current law.

Sought to Seize License

He said the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control attempted for two years to confiscate the license of Estrellas De Noche, located in the 2400 block of East 1st Street, but the owners fought the revocation.

During the last year, he said, as many as 20 narcotics arrests were made at the bar, including the bartender.

Before the dispute with the ABC could be settled, Katz said, the bar owners voluntarily gave up their liquor license. The owners could not be reached for comment.

The bar was closed only two weeks ago, according to Marcos Ramirez, 26, a neighborhood resident who said that drug dealers used to hang out on the sidewalk in front of the bar.

“I think this is great,” Ramirez said of the recent closure. “All they did was scare people around the neighborhood.”

Jay Stroh, the director of the ABC, complained that it has been “very difficult” to act against a license-holder because of built-in delays in the legal system. “This will give us further tentacles to get out and remove these problems,” he said.

The law allows local district attorneys or the state attorney general to go to Superior Court to seize a license of a bar owner, or a convenience store where beer and wine is sold. A hearing is then required to be held within 10 days. At the close of the hearing, the court can seize the license.

Katz said leaders from various community organizations helped fight the so-called “liquor lobby” to get the bill passed.

But John Pierce, a staff attorney for the ABC, said the law would likely be limited in its application because authorities must prove that the bar owner knew about and consented to the drug sales.

“This is a fairly limited situation,” he said. He said that in most cases bar owners say they had no idea illegal activity was occurring on their premises, or outside in the parking lot.

“We don’t really know how the statute will work out,” Pierce said. He estimated that the new law might be used in 10% to 20% of the cases brought by the ABC.

But even that limited use is important to neighborhoods battling drug dealers who duck into friendly business establishments when police drive by, according to Katz and several community leaders.