Medical Cannabis To Be ‘Significant’ Part Of Jersey’s Economy According To Deputy
Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands between England and France, is an island nation and self-governing British Crown Dependency. Jersey’s economy currently revolves around finance center activities, with such activity accounting for nearly 40% of economic activity in Jersey and 70% of the island nation’s tax revenue.
Home to roughly 100,000 people, 66% of the total resident population of Jersey were of working age as of 2021 (women and men aged 16 to 64 years). About a sixth (18%) were above working age and another sixth (16%) were below working age in 2021.
Jersey, like every other country on the planet, can benefit from the economic boost that the emerging legal medical cannabis industry can provide. According to Jersey’s Economic Development Minister medical cannabis will play a key role in the nation’s economy going forward. Per Jersey Evening Post:
JERSEY’s medicinal cannabis industry is still on course to become a “significant” part of the economy – having already generated around £60 million of investment in the Island – the Economic Development Minister has claimed.
Deputy Kirsten Morel said that local growers had contended with high start-up costs and strict regulatory standards, but that his department expected demand for medicinal cannabis to grow as more countries allowed for it to be prescribed.
In 2021, former Economic Development Minister – now Chief Minister – Lyndon Farnham predicted that the industry would start generating “meaningful returns” within five years and that it could become a “mainstay” of Jersey’s economy.
Unfortunately, not everyone is excited about Jersey’s medical cannabis industry. Police Chief Robin Smith is calling for tighter control of the country’s emerging industry, claiming that “entrepreneurial criminals” see the industry 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,” Chief Smith stated according to Jersey Evening Post.
The police chief’s anecdotal evidence is limited at best, and just as many countries around the world are benefitting from a booming medical cannabis industry without any widespread issues, the same will presumably be true in Jersey in the coming years.
