House Bill No. 17 of 2026
Status: Bill — not yet law
Nine clauses amending seven Acts. Clause 2: commencement on a date fixed by the President by Proclamation. Second reading in the House; Senate consideration scheduled for 2 October.
Legal Unit
Bill Essentials (as introduced)
Parliament's clause-by-clause analysis of the Bill as introduced: new age thresholds, $50,000 age-based offences, fixed-penalty and rehabilitation schemes, and the increased business penalties. It does not cover later amendments.
Clause 3 · Dangerous Drugs
Cannabis possession and cultivation allowances apply only to persons “over the age of twenty-five years”.
Inserts “over the age of twenty-five years” into the 30 g cannabis, 5 g resin and four-plant exceptions; replaces section 5B with a fixed-penalty scheme for persons under 25, payable or convertible to a prescribed rehabilitation programme within 28 days; payment or completion bars conviction. Penalty: Fixed penalty (amount by Order) or 30-hour rehabilitation; section 5C fine doubles from $250,000 to $500,000 with five years retained.
Clause 4 · Clubs
Member-club admission age rises from 21 to 25, except clubs principally devoted to athletics.
Raises admission age for clubs not principally devoted to athletic purposes to 25; athletic clubs may admit under-25s but may not permit them to gamble; general penalty $50,000. Penalty: General penalty rises from $10,000 to $50,000.
Clause 5 · Tobacco
Tobacco sales age rises to 21; under-21 smoking in specified enclosed public places becomes an offence.
Specified sales offences: first offence $150,000/9 months to $300,000/10 years; second $300,000/18 months to $600,000/20 years; indictment $1m/20 years; unspecified-penalty offences $500,000/15 years summary, $1m/30 years indictment. Penalty: $50,000 for the young person (subject to fixed penalty). Sellers: first offence $300,000 and ten years; failure to display notice $500 to $100,000.
Clause 6 · Children
New $50,000 offences for children over ten, under-21s (alcohol, tobacco) and under-25s (cannabis, drugs).
Police to obtain identifying details, warn, and notify the Children's Authority, which contacts the parent or guardian. New s.38A (under 21: alcohol/tobacco) and s.38B (under 25: cannabis/dangerous drugs), each $50,000 on summary conviction, subject to fixed-penalty provisions. Penalty: $50,000 on summary conviction, with fixed-penalty and rehabilitation alternatives. Exposing a child to dangerous drugs: $3m/15 years summary, $5m/30 years indictment.
Clause 7 · Liquor
Alcohol threshold rises to 21; amusement-gaming areas in licensed premises closed to under-25s.
New s.60B: $300,000 and possible revocation for knowingly permitting a child in the alcohol area, save a dwelling or a supervised meal/function (not after 9 p.m. or under a night-bar licence). Unlawful retail $6,000 to $300,000 and 30 years; spirits without licence $30,000 to $100,000; disorder $3,000 to $100,000. Penalty: Knowingly selling to under-21: $50,000/15 years (first), $150,000/20 years (second), $300,000/30 years (third). Gaming-area breach $1,000 to $100,000.
Clause 8 · Gambling
Gambling age rises to 25; under-25s barred from gambling premises other than race tracks.
Premises must display rules prohibiting gambling by persons under 25; offence to knowingly permit under-25s to gamble or enter; street bookmaking $50,000 with the one-year prison term removed; signage breaches $100,000. Penalty: New s.82A: $50,000 for the under-25 (subject to fixed penalty). Unlicensed remote gambling $5m and seven years.
Clause 9 · Cannabis
Relevant cannabis thresholds, including sacramental dispensing, rise to 25.
Sacramental dispensaries may dispense only to registered adherents over 25; causing or permitting dispensing to under-25s at a place of worship, dispensary or exempt event: $500,000 and 30 years; same payment, rehabilitation, contest and court machinery as other clauses. Penalty: Unauthorised medicinal use $100,000/10 years summary, $200,000/20 years indictment; under-25 offender $50,000. Dispensing to under-25: $500,000 and 30 years.
Age of Majority Act
Full age remains 18
Full age is attained at 18. The Bill does not change this; it restricts specified activities for adults aged 18 to 24.
CDC · STEPS 2024 · AJDAA
Public-health evidence
States that raised their drinking age to 21 before the federal law saw a 16% drop in motor-vehicle crashes; past-month drinking among 18–20-year-olds fell from 59% to 40% (1985–1991). Supports Tobacco 21 as part of a wider strategy, and says T21 laws free of youth purchase, use or possession penalties can help prevent and reduce youth tobacco use. Ministry of Health/PAHO STEPS 2024 survey of 4,052 adults aged 18–69: 51.5% drank alcohol in the past 30 days; 21.3% currently smoke tobacco. Peer-reviewed Perspective: brain development continues into the third decade, but there is no empirically defined neurodevelopmental endpoint at 25.
UK Government
A different response to young-adult gambling risk
The UK gambling review identified 18–24-year-olds as a particularly vulnerable cohort but did not raise the general gambling age above 18. £5 per spin for adults 25 and over; £2 per spin for 18–24-year-olds.
Budget · October 2025
Alcohol and tobacco duties doubled
Reports the Budget duty changes: rum and spirits $79.25 to $158.50; beer $5.14 to $10.28; cigarettes $5.26 to $10.52 per pack of 20; and the Finance Minister's 80% revenue statement. The Finance Minister's explanation that CARICOM alcohol and tobacco imports are taxed at the domestic rate, and that customs and Common Market rates were raised to match excise.
Industry reporting
Bar sales after the duty increase
Club 2011 in Debe: owner Ashmir Mohammed reports a 40–50% fall in sales after the duty increase. An individual account, not a national measurement.
MICS 2022 · Table SR.2.3
Rural, urban and Eastern RHA wealth-index context
MICS wealth-index distribution: 50.0% of the rural household population, 33.2% of the urban household population and 64.5% of the Eastern RHA household population were in the bottom two national wealth quintiles. The wealth index is a relative asset-based ranking, not a poverty rate or measure of current income or expenditure.
29 September 2026
The Prime Minister's announcement
The Prime Minister's announcement of the 21 and 25 thresholds and the seven Acts to be amended.
Extracts are summarised from the document of record, which is linked above. Where a passage is disputed, this newsroom will publish the correction alongside the extract.