Guernsey medical cannabis patients face £25 import fee

Patients on Guernsey, who access cannabis-based products from UK pharmacies, will need to pay an additional import fee from next year.

The Health and Social Care Committee on the Island of Guernsey, has announced a £25 import fee for patients who receive medical cannabis from pharmacies in the UK.

The requirement is expected to come into force in early 2022 and will be used to help cover the costs of issuing licenses, officials said.

Medical cannabis was legalised on the Island in 2019, but due to a lack of prescribing doctors, patients had no choice but to access it through clinicians in the mainland UK.

Guernsey’s first medical cannabis clinic, Medicann, opened its doors in September 2021 having already established itself on the neighbouring isle of Jersey.

Medicann CEO, Gary Whipp, told Cannabis Health that the announcement had not come as a surprise.

“When you when you’ve had something for free for a while, it’s always painful to get a charge, but it comes down to the cost of issuing licences and resources,” he commented.

“If we’re applying for licences for 500 patients as a clinic, it’s only one export, one import and one customs officer can see it through the system. However, that’s 500 individual licence applications, 500 exports, 500 imports, and the customs officer has to watch for 500 sets of medication coming through.

“I think the fee is probably, unfortunately, warranted, and it was always likely to be implemented somewhere down the line. It’s certainly not uncommon.”

The clinic, which is based within the Stonelakes Pharmacy, is currently offering free consultations for prescribed medical cannabis patients who switch to the clinic before the end of the year. 

“We’ve been open in Jersey for over a year and the vast majority of patients have moved to us,” Whipp added.

“It makes more sense to us, for our local patients to be seen by our local consultants, but if they wish to stay with the UK they are perfectly welcome to.”

The HSC website states: “Cannabis based products medicinal [CBPM] use is still in its infancy in the UK, which impacts both on its availability and associated evidence base. HSC will continue to be informed by best practice, including clinical guidance produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) regarding its local use and funding.

“The law in place in Guernsey allows local doctors to prescribe products privately which are manufactured to a pharmaceutical standard. It is also possible for islanders to obtain prescriptions from the UK or Jersey and arrange for the importation of products into the Bailiwick.”

Full details on applying for a license are available via the HSC website