ISLANDERS who thought the question around decriminalising cannabis was “to be or not to be” might be surprised to learn that there is another debate which needs resolving first: Which minister is responsible for it?
Until now, this has largely been understood as a criminal-justice issue.
However, comments by current Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat in a recent Scrutiny hearing have signalled that not only is the matter not being considered a priority for her department – but that she does not consider it within her remit.
Rather, she believes it is the Health Minister’s job to deal with decriminalisation issues ahead of any States debate.
In the States Assembly earlier this year, Deputy Le Hegarat said that she intended to prioritise issues such as modern slavery and tackling violence against women and girls.
Reiterating those views in a Scrutiny panel hearing, she said: “Any discussion of decriminalisation needs to take into account the complexities and potential unintended consequences.
“We need to have a debate about what decriminalisation means before we debate the issue itself. You have 49 people in the States Assembly who probably think that it means different things.
“From my point of view, I won’t be bringing an in-committee debate. I have finite resources and those finite resources are doing other things.
“I don’t want to divert resources from the policy team into something that quite clearly sits with someone else anyway.”
Deputy Le Hegarat added that she would prefer to “look at” legislation around driving under the influence of drugs before decriminalisation, saying: “We’re not in a position at the moment where we can test for drugs, like with breathalysers for alcohol, and we don’t have that legislation.
“There are a lot of laws in Jersey that are fairly outdated in relation to the remit to which I’m a minister at the moment. I would like to see those pieces of legislation brought forward to the 21st century before potentially going to an in-committee debate.”
Health Minister Tom Binet said that “from a legislative point of view”, the debate touched both his and the Home Affairs Minister’s remit, and he had had preliminary discussions with his fellow minister.
He said: “I would be comfortable with a debate around decriminalisation, although it is too early to say whether I will be the one to bring that to the Assembly.
“Decriminalisation is not a top priority, but we are looking at cannabis in the round quite comprehensively, so if we are talking about cannabis in its entirety, then it’s a priority, we need to introduce the correct legislation from a medical and production point of view, and we are working on that.”
End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey co-ordinator Simon Harrison said that the Home Affairs Minister’s recent comments had made it seem that substance use was now a health issue, and he agreed that the subject of cannabis reform was complex, with many considerations and misunderstandings.
He suggested there was a “fundamental lack of understanding and knowledge about cannabis” across government and among States Members.
His organisation, he continued, would like to see government commit to undertaking the necessary research to produce a report on the wider subject of cannabis, looking at other jurisdictions and speaking to all sides of the debate.
He added: “We appreciate that there are limited resources in government, and we advocate for the adoption of minor amendments to bring about the decriminalisation of possession, and potentially also personal cultivation.”
