The Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) is back­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s pro­pos­al to raise the le­gal drink­ing age to 21 and in­crease the le­gal age for gam­bling and mar­i­jua­na use to 25.

De­scrib­ing it as a “bold and nec­es­sary in­ter­ven­tion,” COP Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Im­ran Ali said the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment is root­ed in sci­ence, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and a long-term vi­sion for a health­i­er, more sta­ble so­ci­ety.

The Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) is back­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s pro­pos­al to raise the le­gal drink­ing age to 21 and in­crease the le­gal age for gam­bling and mar­i­jua­na use to 25.

De­scrib­ing it as a “bold and nec­es­sary in­ter­ven­tion,” COP Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Im­ran Ali said the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment is root­ed in sci­ence, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and a long-term vi­sion for a health­i­er, more sta­ble so­ci­ety.

“This is not about be­ing un­pop­u­lar, it’s about do­ing what’s right for the next gen­er­a­tion. The sci­ence is clear: ear­ly ex­po­sure to al­co­hol, mar­i­jua­na, and gam­bling has long-last­ing neg­a­tive ef­fects on de­vel­op­ing brains and emo­tion­al health. We ap­plaud the Prime Min­is­ter’s lead­er­ship in putting the fu­ture of our youth be­fore po­lit­i­cal ex­pe­di­en­cy,” said Ali.

Cit­ing re­search from the U.S. Na­tion­al In­sti­tute on Al­co­hol Abuse and Al­co­holism (NI­AAA), the COP point­ed out that the brain’s pre­frontal cor­tex—re­spon­si­ble for judge­ment, de­ci­sion-mak­ing, and im­pulse con­trol—con­tin­ues de­vel­op­ing in­to the mid-20s. Youths who be­gin drink­ing be­fore age 21 are four times more like­ly to de­vel­op al­co­hol de­pen­den­cy in adult­hood.

The COP al­so ref­er­enced a 2021 study in The Lancet Psy­chi­a­try, which re­port­ed a 37 per­cent in­creased risk of de­pres­sion in in­di­vid­u­als who be­gan us­ing cannabis be­fore age 25. Ali said mar­i­jua­na use be­fore that age has al­so been linked to re­duced cog­ni­tive per­for­mance, mem­o­ry loss, and height­ened risk of men­tal health dis­or­ders.

“Gam­bling ad­dic­tion is al­so far more preva­lent among youth,” the COP warned, “with stud­ies show­ing in­di­vid­u­als who start gam­bling in ado­les­cence are two to three times more like­ly to de­vel­op com­pul­sive habits lat­er on.”

Ali al­so raised con­cerns about the ris­ing use of va­p­ing prod­ucts among teens and young adults, call­ing it a pub­lic health cri­sis. He said many of these prod­ucts con­tain high­er nico­tine lev­els than tra­di­tion­al cig­a­rettes and are be­ing mar­ket­ed with fruity flavours and flashy de­vices that ap­peal to chil­dren.

“We can­not ig­nore the da­ta. Va­p­ing is the new ad­dic­tion gate­way, and our leg­is­la­tion must catch up with re­al­i­ty,” he said.

Ali said there are now re­ports emerg­ing from sec­ondary schools of stu­dents us­ing so-called gate­way sub­stances like ‘pills’, ‘mol­ly’, and ‘hon­ey packs’. He called for ur­gent in­ter­ven­tion from both par­ents and school au­thor­i­ties.

The COP is urg­ing all “right-think­ing cit­i­zens and civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions” to sup­port the Prime Min­is­ter’s pro­pos­al, which it said aligns with in­ter­na­tion­al best prac­tices and rep­re­sents a se­ri­ous com­mit­ment to youth de­vel­op­ment.

“Our young peo­ple need guid­ance, not greater ac­cess to harm­ful habits. Let us cre­ate a cul­ture where their fu­tures are not gam­bled away, but nur­tured,” said Ali.