In the early hours of Monday, August 4, 2025, David Morgan was found dead, lying face up in his bathtub.
asserted
Morgan → find → 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.
asserted
which → give → Jersey
The autopsy also revealed soot in the 66-year-old’s lungs, proving he had been alive and breathing while the fire burnt.
asserted
fire → reveal → lungs
Further investigation found the door to his flat was unlocked and could easily have been opened by simply turning the handle.
uncertain
door → find → handle
So why on earth did this much-loved father of one do nothing to escape his fate?
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father → love → 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.
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Berry → attend → 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?
uncertain
that → prescribe → 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.
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laws → receive → 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.
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clinic → lead → much
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.’
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I → reveal → 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.
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it → show → reality
For six weeks before the fire – which started when a fan heater was knocked over on the carpet – his behaviour became increasingly erratic.
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behaviour → start → carpet
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.
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man → make → 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.
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he → write → addiction
Her letter was ignored.
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letter → ignore → ?
Dr Clynes then attempted to refer Mr Morgan to Jersey’s Drug and Alcohol Service, but he was declined.
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he → attempt → Service
One of the reasons given was that he was taking a prescription drug and therefore did not fit the criteria for support.
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he → give → support
With little help and in the throes of psychosis, he kicked his only son out of their shared flat.
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he → kick → flat
And then in the early hours of August 4, died alone as the fire tore through his home.
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fire → die → 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.
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smoke → say → him
In other words, Mr Morgan was killed by a horribly ill-advised prescription for medicinal cannabis.
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Morgan → kill → 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?
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man → prescribe → GP
The answer lies in Jersey’s unusually liberal laws surrounding the prescription of medicinal cannabis.
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answer → lie → 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.
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residents → prescribe → GPs
In most cases, this is indistinguishable from the street drug, apart from the fact that it must be grown following pharmaceutical-grade standards.
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it → grow → standards
This consistency in production means that it can be stronger than illegal cannabis, which can contain impurities.
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which → mean → impurities
The island’s medicinal cannabis industry now brings in £17million a year.
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industry → bring → 17million
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.
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That → ’ → 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.
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number → plan → 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.
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cent → admit → unit
In 2025 the drug was a contributing factor to just 22 per cent of admissions.
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drug → contribute → admissions
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.
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she → take → health
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.
uncertain
Jersey → accord → epidemic
Is it any wonder that this charming island is becoming known as Amsterdam-on-Sea?
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island → know → Sea
Currently, the locally grown herb must be exported and cannot be sold as medicinal cannabis on the island.
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herb → grow → 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.
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that → want → locals
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.
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Jack → hope → sale
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.
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kilos → enter → cannabis
Moving into the growing hall, the temperature climbs to 26C and we don white hazmat suits and black gloves.
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we → move → suits
The smell is overwhelming as we examine the plants Jack describes as his ‘girls’.
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Jack → examine → girls
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
