Charlotte Caldwell is calling for regulated recreational cannabis pilots to solve the UK’s ‘broken cannabis policy’.
She said that more than 3m. adults in the UK were using cannabis recreationally each year, but almost all of them on the illicit market, adding that only about 10% of medicinal cannabis users in the UK only take the drug in prescription form.
The trial of the TRACD programme would give governments a ‘robust, real-world evidence base on which to build future policy’, she said. Ms Caldwell pushed for a change in the law on medicinal cannabis when her son Billy, who has epilepsy, had medicinal cannabis, which they secured in Canada, confiscated on arrival at Heathrow Airport.
After having violent seizures the Home Office was notified that Billy’s condition was life-threatening and the then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid returned the medicinal cannabis the next day, before changing the law, allowing patients to be prescribed medicinal cannabis.
Home Affairs Committee president Marc Leadbeater said that he had met with Ms Caldwell to discuss how the scheme could work in Guernsey.
The conversations helped Deputy Leadbeater develop the proposals in his requete, which he withdrew on the eve of a States debate in March.
‘Charlotte asked me if I would work with her and endorse her pilot but it’s difficult for me to do so considering where we are on the journey,’ he said.
‘This is why I structured the requete in such a way that it doesn’t explicitly detail the solution, instead it sought to form a working group made up of members of each stakeholder committee, and task that working group to gather evidence and return to the States with clearly defined proposals for how a pilot, similar to those operating in Switzerland and now being promoted by Charlotte, could work in practice for Guernsey.’
Deputy Leadbeater said he would resubmit his requete for debate later this year.
‘Both Jersey and the Isle of Man are working up proposals similar to mine, my intention is to work with both jurisdictions in order to join up the thinking and jointly work with the Home Office to gain support for what we are trying to achieve,’ he said.
‘I fully support Charlotte’s work and wish her all the best, but we need to debate my requete first and get a direction from the States before we consider the type and detail of any pilot programme for Guernsey.’
Ms Caldwell visited the island last year and spoke at the 420 cannabis celebration event in April 2025.
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