Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Diego Mar­tin North East MP Colm Im­bert is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to with­draw its con­tro­ver­sial leg­is­la­tion rais­ing the le­gal ages for al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling and in­stead send it to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) for pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion.

Im­bert made the call dur­ing de­bate on the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026, in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day, ar­gu­ing that the peo­ple who would be most af­fect­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly young adults, were nev­er giv­en an op­por­tu­ni­ty to have their say.

“With­draw this Bill, with­draw this Bill and do pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion,” Im­bert said.

“You could go to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee, or you could have struc­tured con­sul­ta­tions through­out the coun­try with young peo­ple. Ho­n­our your man­i­festo. You said you would con­sult. Con­sult with them.”

Im­bert ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of con­tra­dict­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s pledge, made in her May 2025 swear­ing-in speech, to pri­ori­tise lis­ten­ing to the pop­u­la­tion.

He es­ti­mat­ed that ap­prox­i­mate­ly 130,000 peo­ple be­tween the ages of 18 and 25 could be di­rect­ly af­fect­ed by the leg­is­la­tion, yet said there had been no “for­mal, struc­tured or known con­sul­ta­tion” with them.

He al­so raised con­cerns about the Bill’s po­ten­tial im­pact on em­ploy­ment, say­ing the new re­quire­ments could cre­ate prob­lems for young work­ers whose jobs re­quire them to han­dle those prod­ucts.

He cit­ed bar­tenders, wait­ers, su­per­mar­ket cashiers, shelf pack­ers, brand pro­mot­ers and de­liv­ery work­ers as ex­am­ples, ar­gu­ing the leg­is­la­tion does not pro­vide an em­ploy­ment ex­cep­tion.

Im­bert said sim­i­lar con­cerns could arise for younger em­ploy­ees in casi­nos, par­tic­u­lar­ly where their du­ties in­volve han­dling al­co­hol or to­bac­co.