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P&R’s plan to kick a scoping exercise into the legality of cannabis into the “to hard to do pile” has been begrudgingly accepted by Health and Social Care, a committee which is now focusing instead of tidying up Guernsey’s current relationship with cannabis.
In 2022 the States Assembly agreed to direct Health and Social Care to review the legalisation of cannabis and scope out how a legal framework could be implemented.
As part of Policy and Resources’ reshuffling of the Government Work Plan the workstream has been re-prioritised as a pipeline project, which essentially means if the GWP reshuffle is approved the scoping work will be delayed until next term.
HSC committee member, Deputy Marc Leadbeater, said the decision was a surprise.
“It was disappointing, to read in the news that this was happening without the committee being fully appraised, and without the committee discussing it.”
Despite this, he said the Committee has now come to an understanding that the scoping exercise will probably be delayed, and so they need to focus on other areas of cannabis legislation.
"So, what we have to do as a committee for the remainder of this term is all agree. Okay. That's the scoping of the legal status... put into the pipeline.
“What we'll do now is concentrate on what we've got and try and tidy it up and make it far more effective and far more equitable.”
Guernsey’s medicinal cannabis market is booming, with more than 1,500 patients in the island receiving cannabis and using it regularly.
While Deputy Leadbeater said it’s a good thing that people have a legal route to cannabis, the system is being abused and it does price some people out.
He said some people are paying between £45 to £145 for a single consultation and then hundreds of pounds on prescriptions.
"This kind of encourages diversion. Because there are the haves and the have nots.”
While he doesn’t condone it, Deputy Leadbeater believes that many people who can’t afford their prescriptions are selling on cannabis.
“I'd be naïve to say that that isn't happening. I'm convinced that we've all heard second-hand reports of that all the time. I mean, that clearly is a building situation in the island.”
He said this isn’t new and Guernsey has had problems with diverted prescriptions for years.
"I can think of half a dozen people in an instant that have lost their lives due to diverted prescriptions.
"Diverted drugs... have been a problem in Guernsey for as long as I can remember. And now we've got a less harmful, but more sought after one.”
He argued that if Guernsey manages to develop a legal regime similar to either Canada, California or the proposed framework in Germany, there would no longer be any issue with diverted prescriptions.
“And if you look at statistics in Canada, they introduced their regime in October 2018. Before the regime something like 20% of youngsters used cannabis, that’s now dropped to 10%.
“The statistics don’t lie.”
You can listen to the full interview below or wherever you get your podcasts:
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