Earlier this year the Misuse of Drugs Advisory Council decided to wait for 12 months to see the effect of downgrading the drug in the UK.
The Labour government moved this year to move the drug from class B to class C – making simple possession not an arrestable offence – amid calls from users and in response to pressure on the police.Acting chief pharmacist Paul McCabe, who sits on the council, said: ‘It was decided that there was no pressing need to reclassify in Jersey, but we decided to wait and see what impact it had had in the UK.’I think that the move was at least partly driven by operational and resources concerns in the UK, but we felt that over here there was not the problem from that point of view, so we didn’t have that driving need.
We already have an adequate system for people who are caught for the first time with small quantities in their possession.’
