MORE lenient guidance outlining how small amounts of personal drug possession can be dealt has been issued by the Attorney General.
It sets out how the honorary police officers who preside at parish hall enquiries should deal with instances of possession and importation of some controlled drugs for personal use through a system of written cautions and fixed fines, instead of prosecution.
The move has been welcomed by pro-cannabis campaigner Simon Harrison, who said the changes marked “another step on the way to minimising the harms that are caused by criminalising people for personal drug use”.
Mr Harrison, co-ordinator for End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey, said the changes were a “welcome step forward” and noted that States Members are also due to hold a debate in November on whether Jersey should change the law in relation to non-medicinal cannabis – and what those changes should be.
“It’s certainly interesting and it adds more weight to the arguments going into this debate,” he added.
Deputy Tom Coles, who last year brought forward a proposition that could have decriminalised the personal possession and recreational use of cannabis in the Island, also welcomed the new guidance.
He said that enabling “more of an opportunity to seek help and seek advice” was “a good thing”.
“A lot of these people are victims” he explained, noting that instances of possession didn’t necessarily mean someone was a “career criminal”.
“A lot of people fall into substance use when something bad happens and they haven’t got a mechanism to cope,” he added, contending that prosecution could reaffirm a “negative cycle”.
The guidance was also described as “sensible” and “helpful” by Health Minister Tom Binet, who said that: “We need to take a pragmatic approach.”
Earlier this year, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae expressed concern on behalf of the Royal Court over the sentencing procedures they were bound to follow suggesting starting points for drug offences were too long.
During a sentencing, he said: “We are compelled by the authority to accept those starting points, although we are bound to say that it is the opinion of all five Jurats that those starting points… are too long and ought to be reviewed by this court, by the Superior Number, in the future.”
Judges use starting points to start sentencing, and make a sentence more lenient or stricter.
