New exemption clause in Miscellaneous Bill allows for underage selling of alcohol, tobacco

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A new ex­emp­tion clause in the Gov­ern­ment’s Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026 will al­low peo­ple over 18 but un­der 21 to han­dle, sell, sup­ply or be in pos­ses­sion of al­co­hol and to­bac­co prod­ucts dur­ing their law­ful em­ploy­ment.

The ex­emp­tion was among amend­ments pre­sent­ed by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie dur­ing the fi­nal stage of de­bate on the bill in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Wednes­day night.

The bill, which seeks to raise the min­i­mum age for the sale, pur­chase, pos­ses­sion or con­sump­tion of in­tox­i­cat­ing liquor or to­bac­co to 21, and cannabis to 25, al­so seeks to raise the min­i­mum per­mis­si­ble age for gam­bling to 25.

The House passed the bill at 11.15 pm, with 23 Gov­ern­ment MPs vot­ing in favour. The ten Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment MPs present vot­ed against it.

Je­re­mie said the amend­ments “will make the bill bet­ter.”

The amend­ments al­so re­quire valid na­tion­al pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion to be shown by any­one buy­ing, us­ing or pos­sess­ing al­co­hol, cannabis or to­bac­co, or en­ter­ing gam­bling es­tab­lish­ments.

Va­p­ing will al­so be re­strict­ed to peo­ple 21 and over.

Je­re­mie said, “We were told it would have been dif­fi­cult for the po­lice to de­ter­mine the ages of peo­ple, so the re­quire­ment of hav­ing a form of valid na­tion­al pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion is in­sert­ed through­out the act to en­sure the pro­hi­bi­tion has ‘teeth’.

“Wher­ev­er ages are con­cerned, there’s an ob­jec­tive means of de­ter­min­ing what the per­son’s age is with the of­fi­cer en­forc­ing the act’s pro­vi­sions at the time and place.”

Je­re­mie said the reach of the law is be­ing ex­tend­ed to va­p­ing

A “vape” is a de­vice which va­por­is­es sub­stances, oth­er than to­bac­co, for the pur­pose of in­hala­tion through a mouth­piece, whether or not the mouth­piece al­so va­por­is­es to­bac­co.

Ac­cord­ing to the amend­ment, a per­son un­der the age of 21 shall not: (a) use a va­p­ing prod­uct; (b) pur­chase a va­p­ing prod­uct; or (c) have a va­p­ing prod­uct in their pos­ses­sion, whether for their own use or for an­oth­er per­son’s use.

Where a per­son sells a va­p­ing prod­uct to an­oth­er, the sell­er shall, be­fore com­plet­ing the sale, re­quire the pur­chas­er to pro­duce valid na­tion­al pho­to ID es­tab­lish­ing that the pur­chas­er is 21 years or old­er.

If the pur­chas­er fails to do so up­on re­quest, the sell­er shall im­me­di­ate­ly refuse the sale/ de­liv­ery of the va­p­ing prod­uct.

Any­one con­tra­ven­ing this is li­able on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion to a $50,000 fine.

A “vape” is al­so de­fined as some­thing which is not a med­ical de­vice or a med­i­c­i­nal prod­uct; or an item which is in­tend­ed to form part of a de­vice. It in­cludes any­thing in­tend­ed to be at­tached to it “with a view to im­part­ing flavour.

Je­re­mie was asked by PNM MP Symon de No­bri­ga about the use of mar­i­jua­na -based vapes. Not­ing va­p­ing will be re­strict­ed to per­sons un­der 21, De No­bri­ga said the age for “weed” use is 25 and asked if any gap will be cre­at­ed with this.

Je­re­mie said, “That’s a very use­ful sug­ges­tion. I wouldn’t think of it - I don’t know what a ‘vape’ is. I’ll do some re­search on mar­i­jua­na va­p­ing and oth­er types that might ex­ist. We’ll prob­a­bly have to re­turn to the bill af­ter the Sen­ate.”

The bill will be de­bat­ed to­day in the Sen­ate.

Amend­ments al­so pre­scribe the fol­low­ing:

* Where a po­lice of­fi­cer has rea­son­able grounds to be­lieve that a per­son (buy­ing, sell­ing, pos­sess­ing, us­ing cannabis) or gam­bling is un­der the re­quired age of 25, the of­fi­cer will re­quire that per­son to pro­duce a valid form of na­tion­al pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

*Some­one dis­pens­ing cannabis shall, be­fore com­plet­ing this, re­quire the per­son re­quest­ing it to pro­duce valid na­tion­al pho­to ID es­tab­lish­ing they are 25 years of age. If the per­son re­quest­ing fails to, the dis­penser shall im­me­di­ate­ly refuse to com­plete the dis­pen­sa­tion.

* Sell­ers of in­tox­i­cat­ing liquor shall, be­fore com­plet­ing a sale, re­quire pur­chasers to pro­duce a valid form of na­tion­al ID es­tab­lish­ing they’ve at­tained 21 years. If they fail to, the sell­er shall im­me­di­ate­ly refuse the sale/de­liv­ery.

* Some­one re­spon­si­ble for con­trol, su­per­vi­sion, man­age­ment or se­cu­ri­ty of a club shall, be­fore per­mit­ting any­one to en­ter, re­quire per­sons to pro­duce valid na­tion­al ID.

* To­bac­co prod­uct sell­ers shall, be­fore com­plet­ing sale, re­quire pur­chasers to pro­duce a valid na­tion­al ID es­tab­lish­ing the 21 years of age. If the pur­chas­er fails, the sell­er shall im­me­di­ate­ly refuse the sale/ de­liv­ery of the prod­uct.

* Some­one re­spon­si­ble for the con­trol, su­per­vi­sion, man­age­ment or se­cu­ri­ty of li­censed gam­bling premis­es shall, be­fore per­mit­ting any­one to en­ter, will re­quire them to pro­duce a valid na­tion­al ID es­tab­lish­ing they are 25.

* The age lim­it won’t ap­ply to per­sons over 18 but un­der 21 who han­dle, sell sup­plies, or are in pos­ses­sion of al­co­hol/ to­bac­co prod­ucts dur­ing their law­ful em­ploy­ment.