An article kindly provided By Si Harrison (2022)
Cannabis, then known as Indian Hemp, was made illegal in Jersey in 1954.
In 1978 the Misuse of Drugs Law was introduced, which mostly copied the UK's 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act with cannabis flower and resin being made Class B drugs and cannabinol and it's derivatives (e.g. cannabis oil) assigned to Class A.
While the UK subsequently changed their legislation to downgrade all cannabis to Class C in 2003 and latterly upgrade them to Class B in 2008 [1], Jersey (as well as Guernsey and Gibraltar) did not alter their legislation and so cannabis retains it's classifications as defined in the 1978 law.
Consequently, there was a zero tolerance in the Island for products containing THC that were not in the form of either cannabis flower or resin as they were deemed to be a derivative of cannabinol and therefore Class A drugs.
In order to facilitate local production of CBD products, in 2019 the Misuse of Drugs law was amended to allow a small amount of THC up to a maximum ratio of 100:3 of CBD:THC, following corresponding legislation
implemented in Guernsey [2].
Legislation to legalise medicinal cannabis in Jersey was adopted by the States Assembly in November 2018, a couple of weeks after the UK [3].
This legislation differs from that of the UK in that it is not just limited to specialist doctors on the GMC register and instead allows anyone who can prescribe to prescribe medicinal cannabis.
However, the Primary Care Body advised GPs at the time not to prescribe medicinal cannabis primarily due to liability concerns [4] and so it was not until 2020 that patients in the Island could access medicinal
cannabis from UK clinics using telemedicine and postal prescriptions during the first Covid lockdown.
End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey was established as a private Facebook group in May 2020 [5], around the time that the first patients in the Island began receiving medicinal cannabis prescriptions.
Through sharing information about these developments with our members and engaging with the various clinics and specialist pharmacies in the UK to facilitate further access, hundreds of patients began to receive
medicinal cannabis prescriptions in the summer of 2020. By the autumn, three cannabis clinics had opened in the Island with a fourth clinic being established in 2022. There are now estimated to be over 2,500
people in the Island who have received a prescription for medicinal cannabis - one of the highest rates per capita in Europe.
Alongside our advocacy for cannabis law reform, End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey continues to advocate for patient access to medicinal cannabis in conjunction with our sister group, the Jersey Medicinal Cannabis Patient Alliance [6].
The general elections in June this year provided us with an opportunity to engage with candidates directly to raise awareness of cannabis issues in Jersey. To support our campaign, we put together an online
presentation making 35 recommendations for reform spanning 5 themes: Patient Access, Cannabis Industry, the Substance Use Strategy, Decriminalisation, and Towards Regulation [7].
We met with a quarter of the election candidates and communicated with a further half of them via email. The response was overwhelmingly positive with the vast majority being receptive to cannabis reform of some sort,
while our largest political party included the decriminalisation of cannabis in their manifesto [8].
By shifting the Overton window and beginning the conversation on cannabis, End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey is optimistic that our new States Assembly will be supportive of a progressive approach to cannabis
during the current term. We continue to lobby States Members on our recommendations for reform and we remain hopeful of progress in addressing each of our 5 themes in due course.
References
[1] Clearing up the myth that cannabis extract is a Class A drug in the
United Kingdom,
[2] Misuse of Drugs (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 8) (Jersey) Order,
[3] Misuse of Drugs (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 7) (Jersey) Order,
[4] GPs told not to prescribe cannabis,
[5] End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey Facebook Group,
[6] Jersey Medicinal Cannabis Patient Alliance Facebook Group,
[8] Reform Jersey Manifesto 2022,