The event featured stallholders, appearances from politicians, and guest speakers in the industry.
‘It’s like any other event, except it’s based around cannabis. It’s more of an educational event to bring public awareness and debunk some of the myths, but also to have a good time,’ said organiser Bruce Caruso.
‘The 420 celebration is in the week this year, so we host this event on the weekend because we want everyone to be involved.’
The guest speakers were Leila Simpson from the United Patients Alliance, British Cannabis CEO Adam Windish, and Home Affairs president Marc Leadbeater, who discussed cannabis in Guernsey past and present, and a road toward meaningful reform.
‘We want to break a lot of the stigma and bring more awareness not to promote the use of cannabis, but make sure people understand the possible effects,’ said Mr Caruso.
‘We believe that cannabis isn’t the issue but occasionally it can trigger an issue in some people, but that’s a very, very small percentage of people.
‘It’s a very minor issue that often gets blown out of proportion by anti-cannabis people and in favour of prohibition.’
Mr Caruso said that it was he who had proposed a cannabis working group to review its status locally and he was pleased that Deputy Leadbeater had looked to push it forward, before ultimately seeking to pull the debate last month, following issues raised over the politicians family connections in the cannabis industry.
‘The working group would mean that we would actually be able to put a bit of time and effort into it,’ he said.
‘Guernsey is not going to just legalise cannabis overnight, it’s one of those things we need to build up to.
‘We need community support and events like this help, but we also need a group of individuals who understand cannabis and understand the plant and why it should be legal, and that’s what the working group is about, getting together the right politicians to work with the right stakeholders and the right healthcare professionals and law enforcement so everyone is on the same page.
‘We want to move forward with legalisation, it’s not about getting the working group together and doing it over night, it’s about incrementalism and gathering the evidence and working our way towards that.’