Jersey
Europe
19/100
Not ranked: Crown Dependency
would rank #44 among countries
Cannabis is a Class B drug, but small amounts are usually settled at a Parish Hall enquiry with a written caution or a fine and no criminal conviction. Private medical prescriptions are unusually common, and the island licenses medical cannabis growers. A decriminalisation debate was put off until after the 2026 election.
Crown Dependency. Jersey is a self-governing Crown Dependency. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and its States Assembly makes its own drug laws; the United Kingdom answers for it internationally, including under the UN drug conventions. See also 🇬🇧 United Kingdom.
In short all countries →
- Can I carry it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I grow it?NoIt is a crime
- Can I buy it?LimitedTolerated shops or clubs, or on prescription
- Can I use it in public?NoUse itself is an offence
- What if I'm caught?Fine or prisonUsually a fine; prison is possible
A rough guide read from the scores below, not legal advice. The details and the exceptions are in each segment: select an answer to jump to it.
- Cannabis users
- about 3,900
- Share aged 15–64
- about 5.75%
This site's figure: there is no national survey, so the median rate of surveyed countries in Europe is applied to people aged 15–64.
Source A median computed on this site from surveyed countries in Europe, using UNODC World Drug Report 2026 figures. Population from the World Bank, aged 15–64. The whole dataset →Score breakdown ▏world average
Select a segment to show or hide the exact rules and sources. How the scores are made →
Possession · 25%2/10adds 5.0 of 25 points
Cannabis is a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978, and possession carries up to five years in prison or a fine. Small amounts are dealt with at a Parish Hall enquiry: under Attorney General directions, up to 15 g usually brought a written caution for a first offence and again after a year. Since the 2024 public order law, a Centenier may instead impose a level 1 fine for possessing a Class B drug if the person accepts it, which does not lead to a conviction. Larger amounts and repeat cases go to court.[1][2][3]
Personal cultivation · 25%1/10adds 2.5 of 25 points
Punishment & enforcement · 20%3/10adds 6.0 of 20 points
Sharing & gifting · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Supplying or offering to supply a Class B drug carries up to 14 years in prison or a fine. The law draws no line for giving cannabis to a friend without payment.[1]
Consumption · 10%1/10adds 1.0 of 10 points
Legal access · 10%3/10adds 3.0 of 10 points
There is no legal adult-use source. Doctors prescribe medical cannabis privately and pharmacies dispense it: an audit counted 23,639 private prescriptions for about 4,361 patients in 2022, roughly 6% of the working population.[5]
References
- Jersey Legal Information Board — Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978, consolidated to 5 December 2025
- Jersey Evening Post — Growing calls for cannabis to be decriminalised in Jersey (14 October 2022)
- Harris Sliwoski — Jersey cannabis reform proposals: what could have been, and what may be after the election (10 February 2026)
- Bailiwick Express — Cannabis decriminalisation rejected by one vote (26 June 2024)
- Bailiwick Express — In numbers: Jersey's medicinal cannabis usage (3 April 2024)
More context not part of the score
Commercial growing is limited to licensed medical producers. Northern Leaf, the first local grower approved by the UK medicines regulator, can produce eight tonnes a year and made its first commercial shipment of high-THC flower to the United Kingdom in November 2023, after an earlier shipment to Australia.[1]
Prescribed medical cannabis is dispensed by pharmacies. Some cannabis extracts, including cannabis oil, are in the same class as heroin; in 2024 the health minister proposed moving cannabinol and its derivatives from Class A to Class B.[2][3]
Medical cannabis is prescribed privately by doctors, some at cannabis clinics, and patients may also bring it in under a personal import licence. Eighteen prescribers were recorded in 2022 and twenty in the first half of 2023. In October 2026 the government said it planned a law to regulate prescribers, to start in early 2027.[2][4]
No cannabis clubs are known. Supplying cannabis to another person is an offence, and none of the 2025 reform options would have created clubs.[5][6]
There is no legal recreational supply, so a visitor has no lawful way to obtain cannabis. Medical cannabis requires a prescription or a personal import licence.[5][2]
A Parish Hall caution or a Centenier's fine does not create a criminal conviction, while a case that goes to court does. In June 2024 the Assembly asked ministers for proposals on decriminalisation, legalisation and regulation; three options were tabled in 2025, but the debate set for 3 February 2026 was put off until after the June 2026 election.[6][3]
Taking cannabis into or out of Jersey is a separate offence from possessing it, normally charged as smuggling or trafficking, with far heavier penalties. That holds almost everywhere, including between two places where cannabis is legal.
A prescription or medical card from another country is generally not recognised. Travellers who need a cannabis-based medicine should ask Jersey's embassy before travelling.[7]
General guidance that applies to almost every country, not a check of Jersey's customs rules.
References
- Jersey Evening Post — Jersey medicinal cannabis firm makes first commercial shipment to UK (15 November 2023)
- Bailiwick Express — In numbers: Jersey's medicinal cannabis usage (3 April 2024)
- Bailiwick Express — Cannabis decriminalisation rejected by one vote (26 June 2024)
- States Assembly of Jersey — WQ.201/2026, answer tabled 12 October 2026
- Jersey Legal Information Board — Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978, consolidated to 5 December 2025
- Harris Sliwoski — Jersey cannabis reform proposals: what could have been, and what may be after the election (10 February 2026)
- International Narcotics Control Board — Travellers carrying medicines containing controlled substances
History 7 of 8 checked against a source
Score and entries per decade
19 today, from 100 before its first recorded change
This country's score Entries that moved the score Context only
Debate ✓
Jersey plans new oversight of medical cannabis prescribers
A written ministerial answer announced plans for legislation regulating doctors who prescribe medicinal cannabis, with commencement expected in early 2027. The Jersey Care Commission's remit would not be extended while it prepared for other new responsibilities. This was a statement of intended reform, not confirmation that new prescribing rules had taken effect.
Debate ✓
Jersey puts off its cannabis reform debate until after the election
The States Assembly debate on three cannabis reform options from the health minister, set for 3 February 2026, was cancelled and deferred until at least after the June election. The options ranged from ending prosecution for small amounts to a state-run sales pilot; none would have changed the law immediately.
Easing ?
Jersey lets Centeniers fine people for possessing cannabis
The Crime (Public Order) (Jersey) Law 2024 came into force. It inserted Article 28A into the Misuse of Drugs Law, allowing a Centenier at a Parish Hall enquiry to impose a level 1 fine for possessing a Class B or Class C drug if the person accepts it, without a criminal conviction.
1619+3 points
Debate ✓
Jersey rejects cannabis decriminalisation by one vote
The States Assembly rejected decriminalising personal possession and recreational use by 23 votes to 22, with one abstention, but asked ministers by 26 votes to 19 to bring forward cannabis proposals by November 2025 and to fund the work.
Medical ✓
Jersey's first local medical cannabis clinic begins prescribing
The Chief Pharmacist's evidence to a later scrutiny review dates the first local clinic to November 2020. Before then, following the January 2019 law change, Jersey patients' prescriptions had been issued by UK clinics and dispensed by UK pharmacies. This records the start of local prescribing rather than the first legal access to these medicines.
Medical ✓ Article
Jersey brings its wider medical cannabis prescribing rules into force
The No. 7 Order made in December 2018 placed qualifying cannabis-related medicinal products within Schedule 2. The exemption required good manufacturing practice and manufacturer certification; smoking the products remained prohibited. Article 4 set commencement on 1 January 2019, with Article 2 following immediately after the other provisions. This was a controlled medicines route, not general cannabis legalisation.
Debate ✓
Jersey backs medical cannabis prescribing beyond hospital consultants
The States Assembly backed the principle that medical professionals who already had prescribing rights should be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis. The subsequent ministerial decision records that this departed from advisory recommendations to limit the new route to hospital consultants. The vote was a policy decision; the implementing Order followed in December and commenced in January 2019.
Ban ✓
Jersey brings Indian hemp under its dangerous drugs law
The Dangerous Drugs (Jersey) Law, sanctioned by the King in Council on 13 April 1954, controlled the import, export, production and sale of raw opium, coca leaves and Indian hemp. It is the earliest Jersey law on cannabis found here; Britain had brought cannabis under control in 1928.
10016−84 points
Datasets not part of the score
What other organisations publish about Jersey, and where it stands among the countries each one covers. Every file is published in full on the sources page.
Use
UNODC
Cannabis use
5.75%of adults
LowestHigher than 68% of 196 countriesHighest3,900 people · median of surveyed countries in the region, computed here
Society
OpenAlex · 2023
Research on cannabis
19papers per million people
9.6 · 202219 · 202320222023 LowestHigher than 97% of 176 countriesHighest2 papers in 2023
Context
GBIF · 1867
Records of the cannabis plant
1dated records
LowestHigher than 0% of 128 countriesHighest0 more without a date · 1 in 1867
Our World in Data, World Bank · 2024
Population
104,540people in 2024
LowestHigher than 7% of 196 countriesHighest
All sources 7 cited in this profile
- Jersey Legal Information Board — Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978, consolidated to 5 December 2025
- Jersey Evening Post — Growing calls for cannabis to be decriminalised in Jersey (14 October 2022)
- Harris Sliwoski — Jersey cannabis reform proposals: what could have been, and what may be after the election (10 February 2026)
- Bailiwick Express — Cannabis decriminalisation rejected by one vote (26 June 2024)
- Bailiwick Express — In numbers: Jersey's medicinal cannabis usage (3 April 2024)
- Jersey Evening Post — Jersey medicinal cannabis firm makes first commercial shipment to UK (15 November 2023)
- States Assembly of Jersey — WQ.201/2026, answer tabled 12 October 2026
Last updated: · 7 sources · history: 7 of 8 entries checked