Medicine fines in Trinidad and Tobago: TT$7,500 vs TT$150,000

What the Finance Act 2026 changed

Every year the Finance Act of Trinidad and Tobago carries more than tax measures. The Finance Act 2026, Act No. 16 of 2026, was assented to on 25 June 2026 and published in the Gazette on 29 June¹³. Its explanatory note lists amendments to more than 25 laws, from the Trustee Ordinance to the Customs Act, and KPMG summarised one theme as "Increases in various fees, fines, and penalties across regulatory legislation"²⁴.

Two of those laws touch medicines and health. Section 8 amends section 31(5) of the Pharmacy Board Act (Chap. 29:52) "by deleting the words 'five thousand dollars' and substituting the words 'seven thousand, five hundred dollars'"¹. Section 10 repeals and replaces the penalty section of the Tobacco Control Act (Chap. 30:04)¹. The Food and Drugs Act (Chap. 30:01), which governs adulterated and misleading drugs, drug samples and imports, does not appear in the list of chapters amended²⁵.

What section 31(5) of the Pharmacy Board Act covers

Section 31 of the Pharmacy Board Act deals with the shopkeeper's licence: the permission for a shop that is not a pharmacy to sell the drugs listed in the Act's Second Schedule. According to the Finance Bill's explanatory note, the amended section 31(5) is the fine "for a person who sells any drug listed or described in the Second Schedule to the Act, without first obtaining a valid licence"². That fine is now TT$7,500, up from TT$5,000¹.

Tobacco: TT$150,000 and up

The contrast is in the same Act. The new section 37 of the Tobacco Control Act provides that a person who breaches sections 13 to 17A is liable on summary conviction to a fine of TT$150,000 and nine months in prison for a first offence, TT$300,000 and 18 months for a second and TT$300,000 and 27 months for a third, or on indictment to TT$600,000 and three years¹. The explanatory note says these sections include selling tobacco to anyone under 18, displaying tobacco products where the public can see them and self-service sales².

The Food and Drugs Act: unchanged since 2005

The Food and Drugs Act is the law the Ministry of Health relies on against unregistered, adulterated and falsified drugs. Its penalty clause, section 33, reads: every person who commits an offence under the Act is liable "on summary conviction for a first offence to a fine of one thousand five hundred dollars and to imprisonment for three months", TT$3,000 and six months for a later offence, and on indictment "to a fine of fifteen thousand dollars and to imprisonment for three years"⁵. Section 34 adds that a summary prosecution must be started within twelve months⁵. The unofficial consolidated version, updated to 31 August 2021, lists Act 6 of 2005 as the last amendment⁵.

Enforcement on the ground

The penalty gap matters because cases are reaching the police but not the courts. In May 2024 the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Roshan Parasram, told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee that the Ministry had inspected 280 pharmacies between February 2023 and April 2024, found 45 with unregistered or expired products and referred 24 to the police⁷. In January 2025 the Ministry's legal adviser, Mala Kowlessar-Tagaille, told a Joint Select Committee: "Right now, the Ministry of Health has made 84 referrals of breaches"; no one had been charged⁶. The same hearing dealt with Ozempic advertised on social media; the principal pharmacist, Anisa Doodnath-Siboo, said advertising Third Schedule drugs is "definitely a breach of the Food and Drug Act"⁶.

In May 2026, when a multi-agency operation in South Oropouche seized 1,016 unregistered male enhancement and pharmaceutical products from supermarkets, the charges under consideration were under the Tobacco Control Act, the Trademark Act and the Standards Act⁸.

What the evidence says about penalties

The World Health Organization estimates that "At least 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified", and its fact sheet lists weak regulatory systems, including lack of enforcement and of punitive actions to deter offenders, among the drivers⁹. A systematic review funded through the WHO's Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research concluded that laws against counterfeit drugs "need to be specific to counterfeit drugs, include firm penalties, address online purchasing of drugs, and be complemented by education of judges and lawyers"¹⁰. A 2019 legal analysis of 28 laws and papers and 25 court judgments in Poland and Ukraine called for "effective criminal penalties" for those who falsify medical products¹¹.

What it means for physicians

For a physician, the practical step has not changed: check the Ministry of Health's searchable database of registered medicines before trusting a product¹³; the Ministry says every drug is screened for safety, quality and efficacy before it is approved¹². What the Finance Act shows is where Parliament put its weight in 2026. Selling a pharmacy-list drug without a shopkeeper licence now risks TT$7,500; breaching the core tobacco rules risks TT$150,000 on a first summary conviction; and offences under the Food and Drugs Act are still punished under penalties last amended in 2005¹⁵.