Age-limit Bill passes 15-12; Govt gets no outside support

The Sen­ate has passed leg­is­la­tion rais­ing the le­gal age for drink­ing al­co­hol and smok­ing to­bac­co in Trinidad and To­ba­go to 21, and for gam­bling and cannabis use to 25, but the Gov­ern­ment failed to at­tract a sin­gle “yes” vote from ei­ther the Op­po­si­tion or In­de­pen­dent bench­es.

The Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026, was ap­proved ear­ly Wednes­day morn­ing, with 15 Sen­a­tors vot­ing in favour, 12 against and three ab­stain­ing.

All 15 votes in favour came from Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tors.