IN the light of recent favourable reports from the International Monetary Fund and other independent reviewers, Jersey can be regarded as a world leader in terms of financial regulation. Unfortunately, we also top another, far less prestigious league – the list of European jurisdictions where illegal drugs command the highest prices.

Comparisons provided by Customs, who with the police spearhead efforts to control the importation and use of prohibited substances, indicate that a kilo of cannabis resin bought in Holland for £250 can be sold here for £5,600. Other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, also produce immense profits for the criminals who smuggle them into the Island and sell them to users.

Given that market forces do not discriminate between legal and illegal activity, it is anything but difficult to appreciate why those who deal in drugs are willing to take risks to tap into the profits available here. It is also easy to understand why, as the recent Curtis Warren trial indicated, the ‘Mister Bigs’ of the international trade in illegal drugs take an interest in our small communities.

However, the risks that smugglers face include not only the surveillance carried out at the Airport, our harbours and around our coasts, which intercepts many attempts at importation, but also the attitude of our courts to major drug crime. Some might see the severe penalties that we impose as draconian, but others would understand that we are simply in the business of protecting those who ultimately suffer from the activities of cynical crooks who care nothing for the misery they bring to others. As those who preside in our courts would no doubt agree, there is a clear duty to prevent addiction, other harmful effects of drug use, and the crime so often associated with funding a drug habit.

The latest information on patterns of drug importation also reveals that many of the illegal substances in circulation here are not what their users think they are. Criminals whose eyes are obviously on the money they can make rather than what might be described as client satisfaction have no compunction about cutting drugs with other chemicals. We are told that the purity of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy sold on the streets can be as low as one per cent.

Anyone still tempted to take what is on offer would do well to remember that the highs that they crave are likely to involve the inadvertent consumption of anything from worming tablets to chalk dust, and from aspirin to horse pills.