Jersey and Guernsey must not allow medicinal cannabis to become a widely available, commercial product, if they choose to relax drug laws further, according to one American health expert.
Dr Lynn Silver, a senior advisor for the Public Health Institute, says certain states in the USA are seeing increased levels of addiction among those who are prescribed medicinal cannabis inappropriately.
The personal use of cannabis for medicinal purposes is legal in 40 US states and Dr Silver says while decriminalising it is “very positive”, she argues it is putting a large number of users at risk.
This is mainly due to incorrect advertising of the what the substance should be prescribed for and a lack of knowledge among doctors about how it should be prescribed.
Dr Silver told ITV News: “We see insane promotion of marijuana use for a wide array of clinical conditions for which it’s not effective and may even be harmful, for example, depression.
“You go in [to the doctor’s] and you see folders and flyers and this will fix what ails you, this is a safe wellness product.”
She added that the drug is even being marketed as a routine painkiller and that’s because most doctors are not familiar enough with how they should prescribe the drug.
She added some patients are being given “highly potent” doses up to ten times higher than the recommended amount for their specific condition.
Dr Silver says this can “facilitate” addiction.
Responding to questions about how Jersey could avoid this problem if it were to relax laws around cannabis use, Dr Silver said the island’s government should avoid copying the States.
She said: “When you devise your policy for Jersey, be very careful.
“I would strongly discourage allowing the emergence of any kind of for profit kind of cannabis industry.”
This conversation comes after a UK coroner ruled that medicinal cannabis – prescribed legally – had contributed to the death of Oliver Robinson. He took his own life after being told to take a high dose by a private clinic, despite a history of mental illness.
The number of prescriptions for medicinal cannabis in Jersey more than doubled between 2022 and 2024, with over 53,000 being handed out.
And in 2025, more than 1 in 5 admissions to the hospital’s acute adult mental health ward were linked to cannabis – both that which was prescribed or from other sources.
It is a similar picture in Guernsey too, where 18% of admissions to the Adult Mental Health Service were linked to, or caused by, cannabis use.
Oliver Robinson was 34 when he died. A UK coroner concluded that medicinal cannabis contributed to his death.
Dr Kirstie Ross, a medic specialising in medicinal cannabis in Jersey, says there are some conditions for which the drug is suitable and can be beneficial, including insomnia, anxiety, chronic pain and certain complications arising from cancer treatment.
Dr Ross adds that overdosing can cause schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder.
However, Dr Ross says: “The sad thing is that if it’s prescribed and managed properly, that risk goes away and you should not be prescribing it to people with schizophrenia or bipolar but for people with depression, that’s something that really needs to be closely monitored.”
She says regular communication between cannabis clinics and other care providers can help make treatment safer.
Dr Ross also told ITV News that illegal cannabis use is completely supplied by an on-island illegal cannabis market and wants the next Government to cap the amounts clinics can prescribe to tackle crime.
“As clinics, it is our responsibility to make sure that the amounts we are prescribing are in line with recommendations and are proportional and I think that’s obviously happening somewhere because it’s getting to the market in the illegal sense.
“So if the Government were to put caps on amounts that were allowed to be prescribed, that would very quickly deal with that illegal market as a problem.”
As Jersey goes to the polls and with Senators back on the ballot, ITV Channel’s Jess Dunsdon and Luke Keohane break down the key election issues alongside expert guests. Listen to Jersey Votes wherever you get your podcasts or watch on ITVX, and YouTube below, with new episodes each Thursday…