Cheers to 21

The provisions of the Miscellaneous Provisions (Alcohol, Cannabis, Dangerous Drugs, Gambling and Tobacco) Bill 2026 created quite a stir in Trinidad and Tobago.

While the debate raged on in the Parliament, persons on the street held their own side-line debate. There are those who supported the passing of the Bill whole-heartedly, but there were also those who found the provisions unreasonable.

The government has effectively raised the minimum age for the purchase, sale, possession and consumption of alcohol from 18 to 21 and the age limit for the sale, purchases, possession and consumption of cannabis to 25. Further, persons under the age of 25 are not permitted to gamble.

I not only understand, but I also appreciate the various debates that ensued. After all, Trinidad is one of the party capitals of the world. Carnival is basically in our DNA. So too, while many may object to this admission, drinking alcoholic beverages goes hand in hand with that culture.

To support this reasoning, I have to look no further than the, ‘The People’s Say’ segment on CNC3 news while the Bill was being debated in Parliament. A student of the University of the West Indies was interviewed on her thoughts on increasing the age of alcohol consumption. To summarise her statement, she was not in agreement and felt that young persons needed to have their own experiences and then decide whether consuming alcohol was something they should be doing or not.

She then went on to discuss her own experiences and stated that she drank alcohol between the ages of 15 and 17 and now she wasn’t so inclined as she had restructured her life. I noted her drinking experiences between the ages of 15 and 17 and it said everything of concern with the increasing of the permitted age.

The truth is, whether we accept it or not, teenagers do not necessarily wait until their 18th birthday to consume alcohol and smoke.

There are many who begin experimenting while attending secondary school and this continues into their first years into university. Which gives rise to the glaring concern with the increase of the minimum age. Have we truly considered the enforceability?

Perhaps the heavy fines were meant to act as a deterrent. But, do young persons, particularly the ones affected by this, really give such serious consideration to ramifications of underage drinking or smoking.

Our police service is already struggling with monitoring the crime situation in this country, can they now actively and properly enforce this change.

Are we truly going to believe that those under 21 attending a party, a Carnival fete, hanging out in their apartments on university campuses, are really not consuming alcohol or smoking?

To be the devil’s advocate, let us assume that the police are properly able to monitor and charges several 18, 19 or 20-year-olds for breaching the law. These persons will be levelled with a fine of $50,000.

As these the persons in this age group are adults, parents cannot be liable for the fine. Most 18, 19 and 20-year-olds are still in the tertiary level schooling years of their life and being maintained by parents. Should that $50,000 fine be unpaid, then the next step may be imprisonment.

Are we, as a society, truly going to allow an 18, 19 and 20-year-olds a period of imprisonment for the consumption of alcohol? It may be argued that the crime doesn’t match the punishment. Agreeably, the minimum age for the consumption of alcohol in some countries are set at 21-years-old.

These countries are in the minority and considered to have one of the strictest age minimums. There are other countries which actually allow the consumption of alcohol from 15, 16 and 17, while the most common age minimum is 18 years.

WHO Global Health Survey for Trinidad and Tobago did indicate that 31.7 per cent of people between the ages of 15 and 19 in our country consume alcohol. Apparently, this percentage is higher than that of our Caricom neighbours. It also found that out of the students surveyed 78.3 per cent (of those who had consumed alcohol) had their first full drink before the age of 14.

The statistics from WHO appear worrying, maybe worrying enough for the government to act immediately. However, did we conduct our own survey on a wider percentage of our countries’ youths to get a clear idea of consumption trends?

Did we conduct public consultations in the areas where drinking may be more prevalent or even specific consultations within the campuses of our various tertiary institutions? Did we attempt to determine what the leading factors where for consumption, whether drinking was due to peer pressure, constraints at home or any other such?

What the statistics clearly showed was that children as young as 14 were consuming alcohol, there were already legislation against such actions, yet, it was happening.

Increasing the age is simply a new age number on a piece of paper. Will it actually be complied with, or are we intending to enforce more rigorously? It seems our answers to ongoing problems is to over legislate, not get to the root and resolve.

The Pavitra Ramharack is head of Chambers at Pavitra Ramharack Attorneys at Law and can be reached at [email protected]