A. Except as provided in Subsection B or C of this section, it is a violation of the Liquor Control Act [60-3A-1 NMSA 1978] for any person licensed pursuant to the provisions of the Liquor Control Act or for any employee, agent or lessee of that person knowingly to employ or use the service of any minor in the sale and service of alcoholic beverages.

B. A person holding a dispenser's, restaurant or club license may employ persons nineteen years of age or older to sell or serve alcoholic beverages in an establishment that is held out to the public as a place where meals are prepared and served and the primary source of revenue is food, and where the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages is not the primary activity, except that a person under twenty-one years of age shall not be employed as a bartender.

C. A person holding a wholesaler's license may employ persons eighteen years of age or older who are licensed pursuant to the New Mexico Commercial Driver's License Act [66-5-52 to 66-5-72 NMSA 1978] to engage in activities customary to warehouse operations and to handle and deliver alcoholic beverages to licensees holding a dispenser's, retailer's, restaurant, club, small brewer, winegrower, craft distiller, manufacturer's, rectifier or any other license that allows for the purchase and delivery of alcoholic beverages by a licensed wholesaler, as long as the minor delivers sealed, unbroken packages, including containers such as bottles, cans and kegs. A person under the age of twenty-one shall not be allowed to sample alcoholic beverages to accounts.

History: Laws 1981, ch. 39, § 91; 1993, ch. 68, § 26; 1999, ch. 119, § 1; 2019, ch. 103, § 2.

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, allowed wholesaler's licensees to employ minors who are licensed under the New Mexico commercial driver's license act to engage in activities customary to warehouse operations and to handle and deliver packaged alcoholic beverages, and prohibited minors from being allowed to sample alcoholic beverages; and added Subsection C.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, in Subsection A, added "Except as provided in Subsection B of this section" and substituted "is" for "shall be," and added Subsection B.

The 1993 amendment, effective July 1, 1993, substituted "person licensed pursuant to the provisions of the Liquor Control Act or for any employee, agent or lessee of that person" for "retailer, dispenser, restaurant licensee, club licensee, canopy licensee or governmental licensee or its lessee".

Minor over 16 years of age, may be employed as entertainer in a night club provided he is accompanied by an adult who is his parent, guardian, spouse or an adult person in whose custody he has been committed at the time by some court. 1955 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 55-6105.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 45 Am. Jur. 2d Intoxicating Liquors § 308.

48 C.J.S. Intoxicating Liquors § 231.