JERSEY has an illegal market in medicinal cannabis, police chief Robin Smith has warned as he added his voice to calls for tighter industry regulation.
Mr Smith said that “entrepreneurial criminals” saw current procedures as “an opportunity to commit crime”.
“We have one case currently – and we have had others – where we believe that some people are dealing in medicinal cannabis via their prescriptions, or other people’s prescriptions. It is not a huge number but it is inevitable because that’s what happens when criminals get entrepreneurial,” he said.
Mr Smith was commenting in the wake of an audit report, published by Health Minister Tom Binet, showing that more than 6% of Jersey’s working population were receiving medicinal cannabis on prescription, compared with 0.05% in the UK.
In a single month last year, 30 patients received prescriptions from two or more sources, some from the same clinic and others from different suppliers.
“I agree that we do need to tighten up procedures to deal with what is, to my mind, an addictive substance. That might be debatable but based on my experience it is an addictive substance, as well as clearly having medicinal benefits.
“If they are confident in those numbers what does that mean in terms of people’s employment, drug-driving and that sort of thing?” he asked.
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‘Entrepreneurial criminals’ are exploiting medicinal cannabis, warns Jersey police chief
