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18
WQ.145/2018
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY M. TADIER OF ST. BRELADE
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 11th SEPTEMBER 2018
Question
What is the Minister's assessment of the finding of Cannabis: The Evidence for Medical Use' (i.e. the Barnes Report) that "cannabis does have medicinal value and continuing placement of cannabis under Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, which thus states it is of no medicinal value, is inaccurate and misleading"; will he undertake to re-visit the scheduling of cannabis under Jersey law; if not, will he explain why not; and, if so, will he state when cannabis will be removed from Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978?
Answer
The Barnes Report continued in the following sentence to state: "We consider that the evidence firmly suggests that cannabis should be a legal product for medicinal use, as long as the quality of the product is guaranteed and the supply chain secured and that medicinal users are, as far as possible and practicable, entered into long term studies of both efficacy and side effects."
The advice received from the Misuse of Drugs Advisory Council (MDAC), partly in response to the Barnes Report but also other reviews as well, was to reschedule specified cannabis-derived products which satisfy the requirements of quality in order that they could, where deemed clinically appropriate, be prescribed for patients. This is what is being done.
Should new evidence become available and MDAC advises that cannabis in its entirety should be rescheduled then I would be willing to review the position. In the meantime, I will consider the adoption of the proposed generic definition of cannabis-derived medicinal products being developed by the UK as soon as it is available and place this definition in the appropriate schedule as advised by MDAC.