De la Bastide, Sturge clash over raising drinking age to 21

Akash Sama­roo

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Michael Si­mon Vic­tor de la Bastide has ques­tioned the log­ic of telling 18-year-olds they are ma­ture enough to vote, mar­ry, dri­ve, join the Po­lice Ser­vice and make oth­er ma­jor life de­ci­sions, but not ma­ture enough to de­cide whether to drink al­co­hol.

De la Bastide raised the is­sue yes­ter­day as the Sen­ate de­bat­ed the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026, which seeks to raise the le­gal age for al­co­hol and to­bac­co from 18 to 21, and for cannabis and gam­bling to 25.