The National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) has raised alarm over reports that minors were able to buy and drink alcohol at some Crop Over events without being asked for identification, warning that weak checks put young people at risk.
NCSA counsellor Mosiah Hoyte told Barbados TODAY the issue had come to the agency’s attention during the peak festival period, as young people were observed attending events where alcohol was widely available.
“There is definitely a concern with young persons using alcohol during Crop Over for sure,” Hoyte said. “We don’t see policies in place where we check the IDs, and we find situations where underage drinking is taking place.”
He suggested the commercial interests of event operators might have sometimes overshadowed their responsibility to prevent alcohol from reaching minors.
“Persons are looking to monopolise on sales and any sale is sometimes for them a good sale, but it is impacting our young people because then we see underage drinking taking place and then that can lead to risky behaviours.”
With the Crop Over season coinciding with the summer vacation, he warned that young people may also have less supervision and greater access to alcohol and other substances.
“Socially, alcohol is attached to almost everything that we do and any celebration; there’s alcohol attached to it, and it’s quite the same for Crop Over.”
He added: “There has to be a national responsibility from promoters, from producers, to ensure that they’re protecting the vulnerable populations and our young people or adolescents or teenagers are a vulnerable population.”
Hoyte suggested that event organisers “go the extra mile to make sure that you are protecting yourself by law because by law you’re not supposed to be serving persons under the age of 18 years old”.
But, Hoyte said parents also had an important role to play: “I want parents to generally implement greater supervision for their children, especially during this time of break or vacation. Generally, parents need to take greater responsibility and greater supervision of their children to make sure they know where they are, what they’re doing, what they have access to.”
Recent NCSA findings show that alcohol use among young people remains a longstanding issue.
Alcohol experimentation among students increased nearly fivefold between primary school and secondary school, according to research in October 2025. The council said adolescents were becoming an increasingly high-risk group for substance use.
Earlier NCSA research also found that children as young as 12 had reported drinking alcohol, while officials have repeatedly identified alcohol as one of the main substances used by young Barbadians.
For Hoyte, the issue is therefore not simply about Crop Over, but about protecting young people from early exposure to substances and the potentially harmful behaviours that can follow.
Rudy Maloney, president of the Entertainment Association of Barbados, which represents show producers and entertainment promoters, could not be reached for comment.
(SB)
