‘Guernsey falling behind Jersey on cannabis law’
GUERNSEY is in danger of falling behind Jersey in the ongoing debate about the future legal status of cannabis – and that is driven by some of the personalities leading on the issue locally, a campaigning deputy has said.
Jersey’s government has announced that it is likely to discuss the decriminalisation of cannabis later this year.
And the matter was on the agenda for a meeting at the end of last week between the health authorities of both islands.
Work on progressing a review of the laws in Guernsey was shelved by Policy & Resources in June, which said that this was not objected to by Health & Social Care.
The Channel Islands Cannabis Industry Association wrote an open letter to deputies last week, claiming that the island was missing out on a number of financial and economic benefits by steadfastly refusing to consider legalisation.
The Home Affairs Committee, under president Deputy Rob Prow, hit back with a strongly-worded statement of its own.
‘I don’t think there’s any chance whatsoever of a cannabis initiative being taken forward this term purely because of who we have on Policy & Resources and who we have on the Home Affairs committee,’ said HSC committee member Marc Leadbeater.
Deputy Leadbeater said that unlike the States of Guernsey, politicians in Jersey seemed more prepared to discuss the topic.
‘Some of the politicians we have locally wish it would just go away,’ he said.
But it was not just a handful of people who wanted to see change, he claimed.
‘It is more than just a vocal minority that can see the damage that prohibition is causing right the way across the globe. Then you look at the other jurisdictions that have approached it from a wholly different perspective, they are seeing not just financial benefits, but social and societal benefits.’
Deputy Leadbeater, who has a financial interest in the industry, says that decriminalisation would only work with a regulatory regime in place.
Jersey’s Home Affairs minister Helen Miles said that while being neutral on the topic, she planned to have the issue raised in committee and thought it was time for a full debate to assess the government’s views.
Appearing at an Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel quarterly hearing, Deputy Miles said: ‘My intention is to have an in-committee debate about it.
‘It shouldn’t be in the “too difficult” tray. We need to have a conversation about it and we need to understand the mood of the Assembly.’
The Jersey approach
JERSEY has just published a 10-year Substance Use Strategy, which includes the aim to ‘continue progression away from criminalisation’, without any clear indication of how it might do so.
Deputy Miles described some aspects of Jersey’s current approach to drugs as ‘de facto decriminalisation’.
She said that the vast majority of ‘low level’ possession of certain drugs by first-time offenders, although currently considered offences, were dealt with at a parish hall inquiry and did not result in a criminal conviction. She described this as ‘effectively decriminalising’ such conduct.
And the legalisation of medicinal cannabis had created a ‘two-tier system’, she said.
‘These are the debates we need to have and we need to hear what people think and we need to act accordingly. We have waited a long time for a strategy. We need to get cracking, and to fulfil some of these objectives, we need to understand the mood of the public and the Assembly.’
