Chote, Lewis: Not enough evidence to justify new age restrictions

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors Sophia Chote, SC and Fran­cis Lewis are ques­tion­ing whether the Gov­ern­ment has pro­duced enough ev­i­dence to jus­ti­fy re­strict­ing al­co­hol, to­bac­co and cannabis use among adults be­tween 18 and 25, warn­ing that Par­lia­ment should not im­pose sweep­ing age lim­its with­out stronger lo­cal da­ta.

Both sen­a­tors sup­port­ed ef­forts to re­duce sub­stance abuse and pro­tect young peo­ple but raised con­cerns yes­ter­day dur­ing de­bate in the Sen­ate on the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026.

Chote said she wel­comed the in­clu­sion of va­p­ing in the leg­is­la­tion be­cause of its po­ten­tial harm to young peo­ple but was un­con­vinced that the Gov­ern­ment had ad­e­quate­ly ex­plained why 21 was the ap­pro­pri­ate thresh­old.