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.

The police chief has recently discussed road safety with Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat and her Infrastructure counterpart Andy Jehan, which had included addressing concerns about drug-driving.

He added that a person was arrested on Wednesday for the offence, having used cannabis.

Addressing the wider issue of decriminalising possession of small quantities of cannabis, Mr Smith said that many other jurisdictions were wrestling with the subject, and he pointed to recent comments made by Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner about increased police checks on the German border to protect road users after the decision to relax laws.

Although he did not wish to give his view on decriminalisation in Jersey, Mr Smith said: “I would be very sceptical of any form of decriminalisation of cannabis without there being a thorough discussion of the consequences.

“There is not necessarily an agreed view and we now need to have a discussion about the consequences and the unintended consequences in terms of crime, road safety and the like.”

‘‘ It is not a huge number but it is inevitable because that’s what happens when criminals get entrepreneurial

Police chief Robin Smith