Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

More than a year af­ter sig­nalling in­ten­tions, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the Gov­ern­ment will be mov­ing to strength­en leg­is­la­tion aimed at pro­tect­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s young peo­ple from the harm­ful ef­fects of sub­stance abuse and gam­bling.

In a Face­book post yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment will bring leg­is­la­tion to Par­lia­ment to­mor­row seek­ing to amend sev­er­al laws gov­ern­ing dan­ger­ous drugs, al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling.

The pro­posed Bill, ti­tled “An Act to amend the Dan­ger­ous Drugs Act, Chap. 11:25, the Reg­is­tra­tion of Clubs Act, Chap. 21:01, the To­bac­co Con­trol Act, Chap. 30:04, the Chil­dren Act, Chap. 46:01, the Liquor Li­cences Act, Chap. 84:10, the Gam­bling (Gam­ing and Bet­ting) Con­trol Act, 2021 (Act No. 8 of 2021) and the Cannabis Con­trol Act, 2022 (Act No. 10 of 2022),” is ex­pect­ed to in­tro­duce sig­nif­i­cant changes to the ex­ist­ing le­gal age thresh­olds.

The Prime Min­is­ter says the mea­sures are in­tend­ed to shield young peo­ple from what she de­scribed as the “per­ni­cious con­se­quences” as­so­ci­at­ed with al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and oth­er dan­ger­ous drugs.

“I am res­olute in my du­ty to pro­tect and safe­guard the young peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the fu­ture cus­to­di­ans of our beloved na­tion, from the per­ni­cious con­se­quences that re­sult from the use and abuse of al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and oth­er dan­ger­ous drugs,” she said.

Asked if she be­lieves the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion will gain the sup­port of in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: “Doesn’t mat­ter.”

Fol­low­ing their re­cent re­jec­tion of the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, Per­sad-Bisses­sar tore in­to the nine in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors, la­belling them as “sa­tan­ic.”

Un­der the pro­posed changes, the min­i­mum le­gal age for the sale, pur­chase, pos­ses­sion or con­sump­tion of al­co­hol and to­bac­co would in­crease from 18 to 21 years.

The Gov­ern­ment al­so in­tends to raise the min­i­mum le­gal age for the sale, pur­chase, pos­ses­sion or con­sump­tion of cannabis from 18 to 25 years.

The pro­posed leg­is­la­tion would like­wise in­crease the min­i­mum per­mis­si­ble age for gam­bling from 18 to 25 years.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the mea­sures are part of her Gov­ern­ment’s broad­er re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect the health and wel­fare of young peo­ple.

“It is in­cum­bent up­on me, as your Prime Min­is­ter, to bring mea­sures that will safe­guard the health, wel­fare and fu­ture of our young peo­ple, and to en­act pro­vi­sions that will de­ci­sive­ly cur­tail the scourge of sub­stance abuse and the haz­ards of gam­bling among them,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter ac­knowl­edged that the pro­posed in­creas­es would rep­re­sent a sig­nif­i­cant de­par­ture from the ex­ist­ing age lim­its, but said the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion is de­lib­er­ate.

“These mea­sures are not ar­bi­trary. They are de­lib­er­ate and root­ed in our un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the health, safe­ty and moral well-be­ing of the young peo­ple of our na­tion,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed.

She al­so point­ed to the po­ten­tial wider con­se­quences of ear­ly ex­po­sure to sub­stances and gam­bling, ar­gu­ing that the ef­fects can ex­tend be­yond the in­di­vid­ual.

“It is well doc­u­ment­ed that the in­dis­crim­i­nate use of these sub­stances, par­tic­u­lar­ly at an ear­ly age, can have grave and far-reach­ing ef­fects not on­ly on the in­di­vid­ual, but al­so on their fam­i­lies and the wider so­ci­ety,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so iden­ti­fied gam­bling as a par­tic­u­lar con­cern, say­ing there is a need to pro­tect young peo­ple from its po­ten­tial fi­nan­cial and so­cial con­se­quences.

“There is al­so a press­ing and un­de­ni­able need to shield our young peo­ple from the per­ils in­her­ent in gam­bling, which threat­ens not on­ly their fi­nan­cial se­cu­ri­ty but al­so their moral and so­cial well-be­ing,” she said.

The pro­posed changes re­flect a com­mit­ment Per­sad-Bisses­sar first out­lined short­ly af­ter the UNC won the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, when she said leg­is­la­tion would be brought to Par­lia­ment to raise the le­gal age for gam­bling and mar­i­jua­na use to 25 and the le­gal age for al­co­hol con­sump­tion to 21.

The Gov­ern­ment is now ex­pect­ed to for­mal­ly ta­ble the leg­is­la­tion in Par­lia­ment on Wednes­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ul­ti­mate ob­jec­tive is to give the next gen­er­a­tion greater pro­tec­tion from ear­ly ex­po­sure to sub­stances and risky be­hav­iours.

“By act­ing de­ci­sive­ly, my Gov­ern­ment seeks to en­sure that the next gen­er­a­tion is af­ford­ed every op­por­tu­ni­ty to grow, learn and suc­ceed with­out be­ing harmed by ear­ly ex­po­sure to dan­ger­ous sub­stances or risky be­hav­iours,” she said.

She de­scribed the ini­tia­tive as part of her re­spon­si­bil­i­ty as Prime Min­is­ter, de­clar­ing: “This is the bind­ing oath of a Prime Min­is­ter who is stead­fast in my love for our young peo­ple.”