Mixed views from UWI students on proposed increase to legal drinking age

While their de­mo­graph­ic re­mains the fo­cus of a pro­posed in­crease to the le­gal age of drink­ing, smok­ing and gam­bling, some Year One and Two stu­dents of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), St Au­gus­tine, say they have mixed views of the pol­i­cy, with some en­dors­ing the de­ci­sion as a means of curb­ing reck­less be­hav­iour, while oth­ers ques­tion the prac­ti­cal­i­ty of leg­is­lat­ing be­hav­iour.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the cam­pus yes­ter­day, 20-year-old Ca­dence Ram­per­sad said she has been drink­ing at a young age, not­ing that she has moved on from the habit, pre­fer­ring to live a health­i­er lifestyle.

For this rea­son, she says she dis­agrees with the pol­i­cy, ar­gu­ing that young peo­ple should be al­lowed to make their own de­ci­sions, even if it in­cludes ex­pe­ri­enc­ing the harm­ful ef­fects of drink­ing to un­der­stand first­hand the need to avoid such habits.