THE support of “influential leaders’ across the British Isles will be crucial in piloting trials to assess the viability of allowing recreational cannabis use in the Island, a leading campaigner has said.
Charlotte Caldwell – who became a household name fighting for her epileptic son’s right to access cannabis medication – said that Health Minister Tom Binet’s endorsement of her call for controlled pilots studies in the UK and Crown Dependencies was welcome.
On Monday, Ms Caldwell launched a campaign to get government approval for this approach. In response to this, Deputy Binet said he would support it – as long as it aligned with decisions made in the States Assembly.
Late last year, the Deputy took a proposition to the States which, if approved, would have plotted a course to the potential decriminalisation or legalisation of non-medical cannabis in Jersey.
One option Members were asked to consider included charging the Health Minister with coming up with detailed proposals to set up a government-approved trial to grow and sell non-medical cannabis “to understand and evidence whether safe and responsible regulation delivers public health benefits”.
However, Deputy Binet pulled his proposal after a number of Members said that more work was required.
After Deputy Binet this week expressed broad support for Ms Caldwell’s campaign for pilot studies, providing her plan married with the will of the States, she said: “With the support of influential leaders across Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, we are looking forward to starting these transformative pilots across the UK and Crown Dependencies.
“These will lay the groundwork for a future where prescription cannabis patients receive the world-class care and dignity they deserve, and recreational users are finally granted the safety of a regulated, legal supply.”
Ms Caldwell and her son Billy have visited Jersey on several occasions in the past and has previously said that the Island has a “unique opportunity” to lead the world – by creating one clear route for patients who need cannabis as a medicine, and another “heavily controlled” programme for those who use it recreationally.
