Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Back on April 7th 2015, the Permanent Committee of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs (CECYSA) of Parliament, met with the St. Maarten Lions Club on where a presentation was made regarding underage drinking and parental responsibility.
The club started their awareness programme in March of last year.
During their presentation to Parliament in April, the club requested that MP's make amendments to the law in its current form that allows youngsters to consume alcohol beverages at the age of 16 years.
During the islands premier cultural festival, Carnival, several scenes where teenage children could be seen consuming alcoholic beverages were witnessed highlighting the need further for action by not only our MP's but also our Executive branch of government to at least attempt to find solutions to this problem.
We put this issue to MP's Christopher Emmanuel and Tamara Leonardo who both acknowledged the seriousness of the problem.
MP Emmanuel is however of the opinion that the legal drinking age is already at 18 and that it should be increased to 21.
Meanwhile MP Tamara Leonard stated that the subject matter is already being handled by a committee which is headed by MP Silveria Jacobs.
She is also of the opinion that solutions will be arrived at and presented to Parliament by the committee.
