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Hopes for Jersey to become a world-leader in the cannabis industry have been hit with another setback, with “resource constraints” halting the development of a dedicated strategy – despite hundreds of thousands of taxpayer cash being spent on laying the foundations for the industry so far.
Back in 2019, Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham – then Economic Development Minister – told a Toronto conference of Jersey’s vision to sit at the “forefront of the emerging European cannabis market”.
Since then, significant work has taken place to lay the groundwork for such an industry, with Government working with the UK Home Office to establish a Memorandum of Understanding.
Spending on advice through consultancy services to date is around £100,000, while a further £100,000 and £300,000 has been budgeted to support the regulation of the industry by the Chief Pharmacist, who has responsibility for issuing licences.
At a Scrutiny hearing back in July, Deputy Morel spoke of work underway alongside the Health Minister to ensure regulations were “fit-for-purpose” as the local sector transitioned from its “start-up phase” to becoming more established.
Pictured: Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel.
"There have been challenges, not all of them foreseeable, but the industry is overcoming them,” he said.
Last year, the Minister said that the cannabis industry had brought up to £60m of inward investment into Jersey.
Elaborating on the growth of the industry at the Scrutiny hearing, Group Director of Economy, Dan Houseago, commented: "We are now supplying products to Australia, UK, Germany, with predictions of profitability in the sector coming through in Q4 of this year."
Deputy Morel, meanwhile, spoke of the possibility that Jersey-grown cannabis, which is currently produced for medicinal purposes, could be exported to other countries where it is fully legalised to be used recreationally.
Looking ahead, Mr Houseago said that his department was focused on “strengthening the framework in the legislative space”, “promoting the sector internationally, and looking at adjacent opportunities in the economy”.
Pictured: The Minister and the Group Director of Economy were enthusiastic about the opportunities in the cannabis industry during an Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing over summer.
But progress appears to have slowed, with Deputy Morel revealing following questions from Deputy Hilary Jeune this week that there are now “no plans to develop a strategy for the cannabis industry at this time”.
“However, in line with good practice and owing to a change in personnel, I have asked officers in the Department of Economy to carry out an economic programmes review, from first principles, during quarter 4,” he added.
The Minister said he was not able to provide figures when asked for an update on the estimated annual revenue of the industry “due to its commercial nature”, but noted that “available data will be collated and assessed as part of the economic programmes review later this year”.
Seeking to generate economic growth and attract inward investment via a medicinal cannabis industry was described as an “objective of the then Government”.
Asked about the volume of cannabis grown and then prescribed locally, the Minister responded: “No-one in Jersey currently holds a manufacturing licence to manufacture a medicinal product in a final dosage form.
“This means that no cannabis cultivated on island will be able to be directly supplied to pharmacies to dispense to patients who have been prescribed a CBPM locally.
“However, some product is exported for further processing by manufacturers – and this product may then be imported back to Jersey – but there is no way to identify how much this is."
He continued: “It has not been possible to collate data on the total quantity of cannabis in the time allocated due to the complex way this data are measured. It is held in different forms including the number of plants, wet weight, dry weight produced, amount destroyed, and the purpose of cultivation.
“I have asked officers to review the available data to explore the best way to quantify the island’s total cannabis production.”
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