Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Jul 27, 2025

Growing cannabis on Britain’s smallest islands: Increasing demand fertilises supply

Growing cannabis on Britain’s smallest islands: Increasing demand fertilises supply

The ice-cream parlours and music halls of the Isle of Man were once packed each summer with workers who travelled ten hours on a steamer to a Manx beach to escape the cotton mills of Lancashire for a week. “You see the best of the working class of the north away from their factories and workshops,” The Spectator informed its readers in 1880. “Their loud provincial tones are heard in boisterous merriment.”
Since the Costa del Sol destroyed the island’s tourist trade, there is much less merriment, provincial or otherwise. But Man has reinvented itself, first as an offshore financial centre and most recently also as a hub for online gaming firms. Finance accounts for about a third of gdp; e-gaming 17%. Tourism makes up less than 1%.

Now Manxmen want a slice of another fast-growing industry: cannabis cultivation. And they need not beg permission from Whitehall. The island is a crown dependency, meaning that though the queen is head of state, it is self-governing. Last month its parliament approved a plan to sell licences to grow and export cannabis for medical use.

It is not the only outcrop to spot an opportunity. The channel island of Jersey, another crown dependency, also smells something in the air. It issued its first cannabis-production licence in December, to a firm that plans to grow the plant in a 75,000-sq-ft greenhouse. Its minister for economic development even flew to Canada to address a cannabis industry conference.

Why the sudden interest? Legal cultivation of cannabis was unheard of outside America until recently; it has leapt about 200-fold globally since 2000, according to the International Narcotics Control Board, an independent monitoring agency. And rules on its medical use are being relaxed across Europe. Britain followed suit in 2018, permitting limited prescription by registered specialists. Brightfield Group, a research firm, reckons the British medical-cannabis market will grow from a relatively paltry £9.6m in 2020 to £293m in 2025.

Britain is already a big player in the global market. It exports more medical cannabis than anywhere else, thanks to gw Pharmaceuticals, a company that uses the plant to make drugs for patients with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Yet new players grumble that the Home Office, which grants cultivation licences, is risk-averse. gw and its suppliers are the only firms permitted to grow cannabis potent enough for medical use. The department’s “starting point is effectively to treat anyone making an application as a criminal”, claims a lawyer who advises cannabis firms.

Both islands hope to outmanoeuvre the mainland. Laurence Skelly, the Isle of Man’s enterprise minister, promises the sort of business-friendly regulation that helped lure gaming firms to the island. And the 0% standard rate of corporation tax in both places—compared with 19% on the mainland—will help ensure that the islands don’t blow their chance.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition of the Economist under the headline “Pot luck”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×