Cayman’s Director of Public Prosecutions will look again at the decision not to prosecute officials involved in decisions that led to a controversial raid on a medical clinic.[1] David Perry KC said the Director of Public Prosecutions would examine the circumstances surrounding the police and customs raid on the Doctors Express urgent care centre, where legally-held cannabis products were seized in 2019.[1] Perry told a hearing in front of Justice Jalil Asif that the director had said “enough”.[1] Justice Asif ruled that the judicial-review application was now academic because the DPP intended to remake the decision on charging.[1]
The case began after Doctors Express on Godfrey Nixon Road in George Town was raided a few days after it had advertised it was prescribing and supplying medical cannabis under licence.[1] A judge in 2021 ruled that the raid was unlawful and that the search warrant that authorised it should be quashed.[1] The court added that Dr John Lee, chief medical officer at the time, had acted improperly when he issued a cease notice to ban cannabinoid products that could be vaporised.[1]
Cayman Islands Urgent Care, which traded as Doctors Express, as well as manufacturers Kaiser Day Cannaceuticals and Kaiser Day Pharmaceuticals, joined forces to ask the director to charge those behind the raid.[1] But the DPP refused and Doctors Express and the other litigants asked for a judicial review to uncover why there had been no prosecutions.[1] Doctors Express and the pharmaceutical companies had sought judicial review against the head of customs, a justice of the peace, the police commissioner and the former chief medical officer, who were all believed to have been involved in the discussions that led to the seizures from the clinic.[1]
