In a significant move to strengthen public health protections across Trinidad and Tobago, Attorney General John Jeremie has announced that vaping will be included in a broad new legislative package that tightens age limits for alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, and gambling.
Jeremie made this announcement yesterday during the introduction of the Miscellaneous Provisions (Alcohol, Cannabis, Dangerous Drugs, Gambling and Tobacco) Bill, 2026 before the country’s Parliament. He confirmed that targeted amendments will be added to formally integrate vaping regulations into the bill, alongside new requirements for age verification when purchasing tobacco and alcohol, accessing cannabis, and entering gambling facilities.
One of the bill’s most notable provisions is an amendment to the existing Registration of Clubs Act, which would bar individuals under the age of 25 from becoming club members, with the sole exception of athletic-focused clubs. Under the new rules, anyone under 25 would also be prohibited from gambling on club premises.
Jeremie emphasized that all of the bill’s combined provisions work in tandem to advance a cohesive public policy agenda: protecting minors and young adults from preventable health harms, reinforcing existing public health safeguards, and ensuring that legal penalties match the severity of violations of these new rules. He noted that the government views the proposed measures as both necessary and proportionate, aligned with legitimate public health goals that meet the jurisprudential standards set by the nation’s highest court.
To build a robust case for the new restrictions, Jeremie presented a wide range of both international public health data and local demographic statistics to Parliament. He began by outlining the context for alcohol regulation, noting that 2025 United Nations Population Fund estimates place Trinidad and Tobago’s total population at 1.5 million, with roughly 285,000 people — 19% of the total population — falling between the ages of 10 and 24. This age demographic, Jeremie argued, is currently facing a growing convergence of public health threats, including chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and rising rates of mental health struggles.
“We cannot, on this side, sit idly by while nearly one-fifth of our nation’s human capital is compromised,” Jeremie told lawmakers.
He referenced the World Health Organisation’s June 2024 Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health and Treatment of Substance Use Disorders, which found that 22% of 15 to 19-year-olds globally consumed alcohol in 2019. That same year, alcohol consumption was linked to 2.6 million deaths worldwide — accounting for 4.7% of all global fatalities that year. The WHO report also estimated that 400 million people aged 15 and older live with alcohol-use disorders, and 209 million struggle with alcohol dependence. Of the alcohol-linked deaths, 724,000 were caused by injuries including road traffic crashes, self-harm, and interpersonal violence, with 13% of all alcohol-attributable deaths occurring among adults aged 20 to 39 — the highest share of any age group.
Jeremie stressed that the harms of excessive alcohol consumption extend far beyond the people who consume it. Approximately 298,000 people die annually in alcohol-related road crashes, and more than half of those deaths — 156,000 — are caused by the impaired driving of another person. He also cited Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) data showing that NCDs accounted for 82.7% of all deaths in Trinidad and Tobago in 2019. While Jeremie clarified that alcohol is not the sole cause of the country’s NCD burden, he noted that both the WHO and PAHO have confirmed causal links between alcohol consumption and the development of NCDs. PAHO’s 2024 STEPS Survey, which polled 4,052 adults aged 18 to 69, found that national alcohol consumption has risen from 40.6% of the population in 2011 to 51.5% in 2024. Among 18 to 44-year-olds, 28.4% have three or more separate risk factors for developing NCDs.
Turning to tobacco regulation, Jeremie argued that the evidence supporting stronger age-based restrictions is incontrovertible. Citing research from the American Cancer Society, he explained that nicotine addiction is uniquely dangerous for younger people because their brains are still developing, leaving them far more susceptible to long-term dependence. Research confirms that current smokers are three times more likely to die from cancer than people who have never smoked, and people who start smoking as minors face a dramatically elevated risk of cancer death compared to those who start later in life — even though starting at age 21 or older does not eliminate all health risks.
Jeremie pointed to the United Kingdom’s recent groundbreaking tobacco policy as a model for this kind of preventive regulation. In late April, the UK enacted legislation banning the sale of all tobacco products, herbal smoking products, and cigarette papers to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, across all four of its constituent nations. “In effect, what they have done is to legislate for the creation of a smoke-free generation. It ensures that in a very short period of time, the UK is going to be smoke-free,” Jeremie noted.
For cannabis, Jeremie argued that a similarly careful, targeted approach is needed given its unique impacts on developing brains. He recalled that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) established a Regional Commission on Marijuana in 2014 to study the social, economic, health, and legal impacts of cannabis use and explore potential regulatory reforms. The commission found that the average age of first cannabis use across the Caribbean is approximately 13 years old, a time when the adolescent brain is undergoing critical developmental changes that make it uniquely vulnerable to the drug’s effects. Caricom heads of government have formally concluded that cannabis use before the age of 24 is not recommended, due to proven negative impacts on memory, learning, and attention, as well as an increased risk of early-onset psychosis.
Finally, Jeremie addressed gambling, which he categorized as a distinct form of harm because unlike alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis, it does not involve consuming a substance, but harmful gambling habits can still leave severe, long-lasting social scars. Citing a December 2024 WHO fact sheet, he explained that problem gambling can lead to crippling financial stress, relationship breakdown, family violence, mental illness, and even suicide. The WHO has also warned that the harms of problem gambling can persist across an individual’s entire lifetime and even be passed down to future generations.