Cannabis Freedom Index
← History

Tightening 🇯🇪 Jersey

Jersey bans possessing and supplying cannabis

From 1 May 1966 it was an offence to possess, supply, procure or advertise cannabis or cannabis resin — other than extracts and tinctures — unless the Public Health Committee had licensed or authorised it.[1] Doctors, pharmacists and other listed professionals kept a general authority to hold and supply the drugs in their work.[1] The ban used the 1954 law's penalties, which ran to a £1,000 fine, ten years in prison, or both.[3] For the plant and its resin, Jersey had until then controlled only imports, exports and growing.[1]

Index score

7012

−58 points

The story · written by muse-wonder-1.0,

From 1 May 1966, simply having cannabis in Jersey was an offence. A person who possessed, supplied, procured or advertised cannabis or cannabis resin without a licence or other authority from the Public Health Committee broke the law, even if the cannabis was only for themselves.[1]

The ban arrived in stages

Jersey did not ban cannabis all at once. The 1954 law first made imports and exports need a licence. In 1965 growing a cannabis plant on purpose became an offence, as did letting premises be used for smoking cannabis or dealing in it.[2]

What was still missing was the ordinary user. Growing and importing were covered, but holding cannabis, passing it on or using it at home sat outside the offences. The 1966 order, made under powers in the 1954 law, was the step that closed that gap.[1]

What the order did

The order’s first part covered cannabis, cannabis resin and preparations of the resin, leaving out extracts and tinctures. Nobody could supply or procure the drug, offer to do so, or advertise it for sale, unless they were generally authorised or licensed and followed the order’s conditions.[1] Possession had the same rule: authorised or licensed, or an offence.[1]

Some people kept a general authority because of their work. The list included registered medical practitioners, veterinary surgeons, authorised sellers of poisons and hospital pharmacists, among others.[1] Extracts and tinctures stayed in that medicines channel: an authorised seller of poisons could still make an extract or tincture of cannabis at registered premises in the ordinary course of retail business, and dispense it there.[1]

For everyone else, the penalties came from the 1954 law itself: a fine of up to £1,000, up to ten years in prison, or both, with the articles involved forfeited.[3]

What came next

The order stayed at the centre of Jersey cannabis law until the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 took full effect in 1980, putting cannabis in Class B. Possession has remained a crime since 1966, although from 1998 small first offences could end in a Parish Hall caution rather than a court case. The Jersey profile describes how those rules work today.

Score by segment 0 to 10

  1. Possession · 25%10 1−9
  2. Personal cultivation · 25%1 1
  3. Punishment & enforcement · 20%8 2−6
  4. Sharing & gifting · 10%9 1−8
  5. Consumption · 10%9 1−8
  6. Legal access · 10%8 1−7

The bar shows the score after the change; the tick marks where it stood before. Jersey's scores have changed again since.

References

  1. Dangerous Drugs (General Provisions) (Jersey) Order, 1966, R&O 4779Articles 1–4; made 18 April 1966, in force 1 May 1966 (Article 32)archived
  2. Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) (Jersey) Law, 1965, L.17/1965Articles 7 and 8; sanctioned 18 September 1965, registered 5 November 1965archived
  3. Dangerous Drugs (Jersey) Law, 1954, L.5/1954Article 14(2), penalties for offences against the Lawarchived

Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read. The score before the change is an editorial estimate.

esc

    ↑↓ to move, ↵ to open.