In the early hours of Monday, August 4, 2025, David Morgan was found dead, lying face up in his bathtub. The cause of death was given as acute carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from a fire which had burned through his flat on the island of Jersey.
The autopsy also revealed soot in the 66-year-old’s lungs, proving he had been alive and breathing while the fire burnt. Further investigation found the door to his flat was unlocked and could easily have been opened by simply turning the handle.
So why on earth did this much-loved father of one do nothing to escape his fate?
Earlier this week, at a hearing attended by the Daily Mail, local coroner and Deputy Viscount of Jersey Matthew Berry raised one horrifying prospect. Might the consumption of medicinal cannabis prescribed by a local clinic have prompted a psychotic breakdown that directly contributed to Mr Morgan’s death?
He had been receiving a prescription for medicinal cannabis to treat an anxiety disorder for about a year, despite the fact that the practitioners at the clinic he obtained it from had never met him in person – for Jersey’s laws don’t mandate face-to-face meetings. In the months leading up to his death, Mr Morgan’s prescription was doubled, affording him access to an inordinate quantity of the psychoactive drug – though exactly how much the clinic has refused to say.
His ex-partner Fiona Healy revealed he admitted to her during the peak of his cannabis consumption: ‘I’m like a kid in a candy shop.’
Two locals, Jack Moullin and Mark Le Lay, showed Fred Kelly around a cannabis production lab, where there are 108 flowering plants sat under harsh lights for 12 hours a day
The heavily guarded facility requires facial recognition to gain access and the temperature is 18C
But little did he know the horrendous effect the drug was having on him as it slowly chipped away at his fragile grip on reality.
For six weeks before the fire – which started when a fan heater was knocked over on the carpet – his behaviour became increasingly erratic.
This usually reserved man made death threats to his ex-partner, began writing on the flat walls, threatened self-immolation, cleaned obsessively, spent unusual amounts of money and displayed all the signs of psychosis.
His GP, Dr Lisa Clynes, wrote to the Windsor Clinic on Jersey, which had prescribed the cannabis and warned it was not ‘in David’s best interests’ to take it – not least because he had a history of addiction and depression.
Her letter was ignored. Dr Clynes then attempted to refer Mr Morgan to Jersey’s Drug and Alcohol Service, but he was declined. One of the reasons given was that he was taking a prescription drug and therefore did not fit the criteria for support.
With little help and in the throes of psychosis, he kicked his only son out of their shared flat. And then in the early hours of August 4, died alone as the fire tore through his home.
The NHS says cannabis products are ‘only likely to benefit a very small number of patients’, but they are widely prescribed on Jersey for everything from anxiety and ADHD
Jersey residents can obtain a prescription from any prescriber for the drug, including recently qualified GPs, some nurses and even pharmacists
This week Coroner Matthew Berry confirmed that the consumption of cannabis was the ‘predominant cause’ of the psychosis and that it was this mental state that contributed to his failure to escape from his flat even as the flames licked around him and smoke overwhelmed him.
In other words, Mr Morgan was killed by a horribly ill-advised prescription for medicinal cannabis.
But why on earth was a vulnerable man in his mid-sixties prescribed increasingly large doses of a psychoactive drug despite his fraught medical history, increasingly psychotic behaviour and the warnings of his GP?
The answer lies in Jersey’s unusually liberal laws surrounding the prescription of medicinal cannabis. While in the UK, only a consultant doctor can prescribe the drug as a measure of last resort, as of 2019, Jersey residents can obtain a prescription from any prescriber, including recently qualified GPs, some nurses and even pharmacists.
In most cases, this is indistinguishable from the street drug, apart from the fact that it must be grown following pharmaceutical-grade standards. This consistency in production means that it can be stronger than illegal cannabis, which can contain impurities. The island’s medicinal cannabis industry now brings in £17million a year.
Seven years on, and 4,300 islanders are now in possession of a prescription for medicinal cannabis. That’s one in 25 of the island’s 104,500 population, 40 times the 0.1 per cent of British citizens prescribed the drug and almost four times the percentage of citizens in America.
Jersey’s health minister Tom Binet plans to introduce new regulations including insisting cannabis clinics examine a patient’s medical history and meet patients face-to-face
But most alarming of all, a significant number of these 4,300 users are now, like David Morgan, experiencing sharp declines in their mental health.
In the six months to September this year, 31 per cent of patients admitted to Jersey’s mental health unit reported being a current cannabis user. In 2025 the drug was a contributing factor to just 22 per cent of admissions.
And Mr Morgan isn’t the only high-profile case. Rebecca Vibert, 46, took her own life in 2023, with a report the following year ruling that it was ‘more likely than not’ that prescribed medicinal cannabis impacted her mental health before she died. The direction of travel is clear and, according to some of the island’s most prominent politicians and physicians,
Jersey is on the brink of a cannabis-induced mental health epidemic. Is it any wonder that this charming island is becoming known as Amsterdam-on-Sea?
Currently, the locally grown herb must be exported and cannot be sold as medicinal cannabis on the island. One company that wants to change that is Cannacine, a cannabis cultivation firm on the north of the island run by two locals, Jack Moullin and Mark Le Lay. They hope to carefully grow a variety of cannabis strains and sell them to local clinics, there are currently five, while keeping a careful eye on their efficacy: ‘It’s like farm to fork except its seed to sale,’ explained Jack.
Entering the heavily guarded facility that requires facial recognition to gain access, we first visited the production lab where the temperature is 18C and eventually, once Cannacine has a licence, kilos of cannabis will be harvested and processed.
Moving into the growing hall, the temperature climbs to 26C and we don white hazmat suits and black gloves.
There are 108 flowering plants here sat under harsh lights for 12 hours a day. The smell is overwhelming as we examine the plants Jack describes as his ‘girls’. ‘We want to create a local Jersey strain, like champagne or a local cheese,’ he continues. ‘This isn’t about money, it’s about passion for the plant.’
So far the two entrepreneurs have sunk over £1million into their impressive, professional business. And should they be granted a licence to sell on the island, the rewards would dwarf that initial outlay.
Cannacine hopes to start supplying some of the five private so-called ‘cannabis clinics’ on the island as soon as next year. The drug currently cannot be prescribed or dispensed by a state-provided health service, which is separate from the NHS.
According to local data, the private clinics dished out an incredible 72,065 imported products in 2025 at a cost of about £17million. That’s a 35 per cent increase on the 53,477 sold the previous year.
About half of all cannabis products sold on prescription in Jersey are ‘flower’, identical to the small green buds of ‘weed’ we associate with illegal consumption.
Other cannabis products include oils designed to be dripped beneath the tongue, sweet-like gummies, vape cartridges and skin patches. A typical prescription can cost anywhere between £70 and £400 a month depending on the strength and quantity.
Although the NHS says cannabis products are ‘only likely to benefit a very small number of patients’, they are widely prescribed on Jersey for everything from anxiety and ADHD to insomnia and chronic pain.
While there are more than 100 compounds in cannabis, the psychoactive ingredient is called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC quantities in cannabis products typically range from 2mg to 25 mg. And for many people on Jersey, smoking cannabis or using THC products such as gummies and vapes has, they say, transformed their lives.
Earlier this week, the Daily Mail visited 54-year-old Alison Fromager, a former finance worker who loved dancing, rollerblading and sports. Until, that is, she was diagnosed with three debilitating conditions in 2011 that led to her ballooning in weight and suffering chronic fatigue, insomnia, sickness, pain and swollen limbs.
Now almost unable to walk, Alison – who lives with her autistic son in a modest home – has turned to medicinal cannabis.
‘It wasn’t overnight,’ she said. ‘But it’s totally changed my life and my intake of tablets. I used to be on 15 a day and now it’s just one alongside the cannabis oils.’
Alison takes two drops of cannabis oil during the day and another at night.
She did try smoking the cannabis as it can prove more effective, but found it made her cough. She also tried a so-called ‘edible’ – where the THC compound is baked into cookies and other sweet treats – however, she recalled with a grin enjoying half a cookie only to end up so high she was ‘staring at the television like a frightened rabbit’.
Regardless, cannabis oils have not only helped considerably with ‘the attacks of pain’ she previously suffered, but it’s helped with her mental health too.
‘I did worry to begin with because going through the menopause you can get anxiety,’ she said, noting cannabis can exacerbate the issue. ‘But I found it’s helped with the anxiety. And I don’t get panic attacks anymore.’
Similarly, Peter, another resident, told us he’d turned to vaping cannabis to treat his insomnia and has ‘never looked back’ having stopped taking sleeping pills when his GP refused to prescribe them any longer.
James Bedding, 44, says the drug saved his life. A quadriplegic after falling from Jersey’s Albert Pier aged 15, he suffered severe muscle spasms until he began vaping cannabis, something he starts at 7.30am before working through 5g a day. Not only has the drug given James his life back, he’s also founded his own vape shop in Jersey’s capital St Helier.
But of course, David Morgan’s story is a reminder that not all stories end so well.
Deputy Karen Wilson was appointed Jersey’s health minister in 2022 following stints as a mental health nurse and as a CEO in the NHS.
By the time she became a minister in Jersey, she had already met a handful of people who, having never had a brush with mental illness, found themselves needing help for anxiety and depression after using medicinal cannabis.
‘I heard stories of 80-year-olds going in with arthritis, coming out with a prescription for medicinal cannabis and ending up on a mental health ward with psychosis,’ said Deputy Wilson, who now campaigns for greater controls and regulation.
‘Medicinal cannabis has been strongly marketed across the island. And people are naturally curious and want to find out more, but they weren’t necessarily aware of the addictive properties or the strength of the prescriptions.’
At the same time, she explains, doctors are being incentivised with ‘huge sums of money’ to prescribe the drug and there were even advertisements for them to move to Jersey to become specialist cannabis prescribers.
‘It’s plain to see that the incentives for medicinal cannabis clinics are huge,’ she concludes with a knowing look, no doubt referring to Jersey’s medicinal cannabis industry that, much like the herb itself, looks set to grow and grow.
‘My own view is that anything that causes harm to people should be avoided.
‘But you have to be pragmatic, and you have to accept people’s individual choice to use substances. So, as a legislator, I think we have to make sure that we protect people’s safety by putting in place the necessary controls.
‘But my own personal opinion…,’ she trails off. ‘I wouldn’t have anyone near the stuff.’
Her successor, Health Minister Tom Binet now faces the unenviable task of ‘putting parts of the genie back in the bottle’.
Senator Binet plans to introduce new regulations including insisting cannabis clinics examine a patient’s medical history, meet patients face-to-face and record any adverse reactions to the drug. As one 38-year-old resident put it: ‘It beggars belief these measures weren’t already in place.’
The urgency for regulation only increased when Sir Robin Murray, a contributor to the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, described the island’s approach to cannabis earlier this year as ‘cavalier’.
He accused the private clinics of working ‘not really to investigate what’s wrong with you, but to dish out cannabis’ for profit.
‘It’s government’s job to make sure that the commercial interests don’t override public interest,’ Senator Binet concluded. ‘We’ve got to make sure that public interest comes first.’
That is all well and good, except that on Jersey – where lives have been lost and saved by cannabis – there is no consensus as to where the public interest lies.
In 2019, many heralded the legalisation of medicinal cannabis as a major step forward.
But as the queue for mental health support grows longer among cannabis users, this island’s early optimism appears to be going up in a puff of smoke.
