Cannabis seizures in Jersey have fallen year-on-year since medicinal cannabis was legalised, new figures have revealed.
Figures from the States of Jersey Police, provided following a request under the Freedom of Information Law, show a clear downward trend in the number of illegal cannabis seizures made since January 2019, when medicinal cannabis first became legal in Jersey.
A clear downward trend
The FOI response covers all recorded seizures of herbal cannabis and cannabis resin from January 2019 to December 2025.
In 2019 – the first year after legalisation – police recorded 235 cannabis seizures. That figure fell to 219 in 2020, 203 in 2021 and 189 in 2022.
The downward trend continued in subsequent years, with 177 seizures in 2023 and 160 in 2024.
At the time the information was compiled in 2025, 132 seizures had been recorded.
In total, police have made 1,315 cannabis seizures since the law change came into force.
The rise of “user-dealers”
While the FoI data does not explain why seizures have fallen, the figures are likely to fuel debate about whether increased access to prescribed cannabis has reduced demand for illicit products.
Just last week, a covert police officer – who cannot be named due to the nature of their work – told Express‘s sister publication, the Jersey Evening Post, that market forces were creating “user-dealers”.
They said that illegal smuggling of herbal cannabis into the Island had now reduced to virtually nothing because of the growth of the secondary market, in which Islanders who had been legally prescribed medicinal cannabis were selling it on to recreational users.
Doing so is illegal.
Police have previously said that enforcement remains focused on supply, trafficking and organised crime, rather than low-level possession, particularly where there is evidence of medical use.
Jersey’s cannabis journey
Medicinal cannabis was legalised in Jersey on 1 January 2019, after politicians voted in November 2018 to allow any medical professional with prescribing rights to issue prescriptions for cannabis-based products for medicinal use.
The move made the Island the first place in Britain to agree to let GPs prescribe medicinal cannabis to their patients, following a decade-long campaign by Reform Jersey’s Deputy Montfort Tadier.
Described as a “watershed moment” for Jersey by the politician, the change was intended to give patients with conditions such as chronic pain, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis legal access to treatment, while maintaining controls on non-medical use.
Things moved quickly thereafter, and the first product – an oral spray – was approved for use later in January 2019.
Five years later, in June 2024, Jersey politicians rejected a proposal from another Reform Jersey politician, Deputy Tom Coles, which would have decriminalised cannabis for personal use by one vote.
Shortly before Christmas, Health Minister Tom Binet put forward a proposal that could end prosecutions for personal cannabis use and even pave the way for a government-run cannabis supply trial.
Change afoot?
Deputy Binet will ask States Members to vote on three proposals in February:
- Under the first, cannabis would remain illegal, but prosecution would cease for people found in possession of, or cultivating, small amounts deemed to be for personal use, with indicative thresholds set in guidance. Offences involving larger quantities or supply would continue to be prosecuted.
- Under the second, possession or cultivation below a legal limit – such as up to 15g or two mature plants – would no longer be a criminal offence at all, provided the cannabis is for personal use and not supplied to others.
- The third would allow a controlled trial of government-run production and sale of non-medical cannabis – enabling registered Jersey residents to purchase cannabis legally under strict conditions. Private, for-profit sales would remain banned, and dealing and supply outside the trial would remain serious criminal offences.
States Members will be able to support one, several, or all three options – but if they reject the proposition entirely, Jersey’s existing rules surrounding cannabis will remain unchanged.
Simon Harrison, co-ordinator for End Cannabis Prohibition Jersey, told Express the proposals align with decades of incremental reform and international guidance on drug policy.
Mr Harrison said the proposition to decriminalise possession of cannabis is “well-considered and pragmatic” and that it “includes a huge amount of thought towards harm reduction and measures to protect young people”.
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