Campaigners seek to legalise cannabis use
MAKING cannabis treatment more readily available to patients for medicinal relief would be the first step to regulate and control marijuana use in Guernsey, a campaign group has said.
About 20 islanders behind the Guernsey Drug Strategy Campaign have put forward proposals that would eventually legalise and regulate the use of both 'medicinal and recreational' marijuana for over-21s using an ID system, but they insist their motives are not driven by encouraging or promoting cannabis use.
Instead the group, which plans to invite cannabis experts over to Guernsey and has already organised talks with some deputies, said its proposals aimed to stamp out harmful and potentially deadly 'synthetic' cannabis and resin currently being dealt in the island and stop children getting hold of it.
One of the campaigners, Lucia Pagliarone, 27, a mother-of-one, has launched an online petition to legalise cannabis and hemp in the Channel Islands, with just over 1,800 supporters.
Fellow campaigner Mike Jackson, 31, who is in full-time employment, said his attention was first drawn to the issue when a friend of his, an occasional cannabis user, was struck down ill by synthetic cannabis, but did not seek medical attention for fear of repercussions, such as arrest or losing their job.
