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Torres: Beverage sampling rules ‘in conflict’
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Posted on Oct 27 2008
The CNMI Department of Commerce is consulting with the Office of the Attorney General after Rep. Stanley Torres (R-Saipan) in a letter last week cited a potential conflict between local regulations for events that involve the sampling of alcoholic drinks and the laws that govern them.
In the Oct. 21 letter, Torres points to a law that says alcoholic beverage sampling events “may be conducted at any on-sale or off-sale licensed establishment,” noting that departmental regulations issued last year carry an added restriction not stipulated in the law.
Under the new regulations, he notes, the owner of an establishment hosting a sampling event must have either a license to serve alcohol or written authorization from the department. Torres contends the requirement that a licensee must own the bar, restaurant or other locale where the event takes place contradicts the law.
“The regulations are in conflict with the law, which permits sampling activities or events to be conducted at any on-sale or off-sale establishment provided that it is a licensed establishment,” Torres writes. “In no part of this law does it state that a licensee must own the premises at which an on-sale or off-sale sampling activity or event takes place.”
In an interview, David Maratita, director of Commerce’s Alcohol, Beverage and Tobacco Control Division, said the department has reviewed the letter and must take up Torres’s complaints with the Attorney General.
