The Op­po­si­tion isn’t against in­creas­ing the age lim­it when it comes to the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol and mar­i­jua­na, but it is call­ing for greater trans­paren­cy fol­low­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s an­nounce­ment to amend the le­gal age for al­co­hol con­sump­tion from 18 to 21 years be­fore it can sup­port the bill.

The age for gam­bling and the use of mar­i­jua­na will al­so be raised from 18 to 25 years, ac­cord­ing to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Speak­ing yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi made a plea with the Gov­ern­ment to tell the pub­lic how it plans to en­force the law. He said cit­i­zens de­serve to know what the le­gal con­se­quences of this amend­ment would be. 

Al-Rawi said, “I am ask­ing now for the Gov­ern­ment to dis­close da­ta so that we can bet­ter un­der­stand where we’re head­ed to in this sce­nario. Are we go­ing to be dri­ving chil­dren in­to an un­der­ground econ­o­my? Are we go­ing to see an up­surge in hid­den util­i­sa­tion? Is that the best way to treat it?

“There is an ex­treme ad­van­tage to be ap­plaud­ed in re­fo­cus­ing this con­ver­sa­tion on pro­tect­ing youth. We cer­tain­ly stand in sup­port of that. The ques­tion here to­day is, what is the da­ta be­hind this de­ci­sion and how are we go­ing to treat with it?”

Al-Rawi al­so cau­tioned that such a bill could lead to racial dis­par­i­ties as well as an up­surge of il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty. 

“I am warn­ing that there is a dis­pro­por­tion­ate ef­fect on this law that is go­ing to be felt by a base that is very dif­fer­ent from an­oth­er base,” he claimed.

He al­so said Gov­ern­ment must con­sid­er that young peo­ple won’t be able to ac­quire a cer­tifi­cate of char­ac­ter nor a job if they have a con­vic­tion.

Mak­ing a sug­ges­tion, Al-Rawi said Gov­ern­ment should in­stead look at peer res­o­lu­tion and drug treat­ment for young peo­ple.

He called on At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie to take a look at the Na­tion­al Youth De­vel­op­ment Agency, which he de­scribes as a very good law in the leg­isla­tive re­view com­mit­tee.

He said this law deals with how the State treats with young peo­ple, both vol­un­tar­i­ly and in­vol­un­tar­i­ly, who find them­selves in trou­ble.

Mean­while, Al-Rawi al­so ques­tioned what plan Gov­ern­ment has to man­age road be­hav­iour in the ab­sence of the de­mer­it point sys­tem, now scrapped.

He cau­tioned that there may be an up­swing in the num­ber of mo­tor ve­hi­cle and road traf­fic cas­es, which he be­lieves will again drown the ju­di­cia­ry.   

What is a Lord Chan­cel­lor

of the Ju­di­cia­ry?

The Op­po­si­tion wants Gov­ern­ment to pro­vide more in­for­ma­tion fol­low­ing its an­nounce­ment to in­tro­duce a Ju­di­cia­ry Chan­cel­lor to as­sist the Chief Jus­tice with man­ag­ing court op­er­a­tions.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the rev­e­la­tion at a UNC Mon­day night fo­rum.

Yes­ter­day, Al-Rawi re­quest­ed clear de­tails on the se­lec­tion cri­te­ria for the chan­cel­lor, in­clud­ing whether the role will be in­de­pen­dent.

The Prime Min­is­ter said At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie had in­struct­ed the Law Re­form Com­mis­sion to ex­am­ine the Of­fice of Lord Chan­cel­lor, and the com­mis­sion pre­pared a re­search note which is un­der re­view.

How­ev­er, Al-Rawi of­fered his own sug­ges­tions for Je­re­mie. 

Al-Rawi said, “A lot more dis­cus­sion has to hap­pen. Please look at the process­es of the court hav­ing di­vi­sions of the court. Look at the ex­ec­u­tive court man­age­ment sys­tem and the deputy sys­tem.”