Pubdate: Thu, 14 May 2015
Source: Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Copyright: 2015 The Jerusalem Post
Contact: http://info.jpost.com/C002/Services/Feedback/editors.html
Website: http://www.jpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/516
Author: Ben Hartman

DANINO: IT'S TIME TO REEVALUATE CANNABIS PROHIBITION

The cause of marijuana legalization received a boost from an unlikely 
source on Wednesday, when Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino 
said it is time for the government and police to reexamine their 
policies on the use of cannabis and study how other countries were 
dealing with the matter.

"I think the time has come for the Israel Police, together with the 
state, to reexamine their stance on cannabis. I think we must sit and 
study what's happening around the world," he said.

Speaking to high school students in Beit Shemesh, Danino also said he 
was aware that cannabis "has become an issue that is much more a part 
of the public debate than it was in the past, and more citizens are 
asking that the use of cannabis be legalized."

The possession or sale of cannabis is illegal in Israel. However, 
more than 20,000 Israelis are issued licenses and prescribed cannabis 
for medical purposes. In addition, according to a 2013 survey by 
Channel 2, 20 percent of adult Israelis say they have used marijuana 
for non-medical purposes, and nearly half (46%) say they believe 
personal use of marijuana should be legalized.

In a Rosh Hashana interview with Israel Hayom last year, Danino 
appeared to express support for reducing enforcement against casual 
users, saying, "I'm not concerned about somebody who's rolling a 
joint on their balcony in this neighborhood or that. I look at the 
dangerous drug addict, the one who robs and steals in order to get his fix."

Absent from Danino's comments was any mention of the 
attorney-general's directives  issued in 1985 and updated in 2003 
that individuals possessing small amounts of cannabis for personal 
use should not be charged on a first offense. Even on subsequent 
offenses, officers were directed to use their judgment.

Regardless, though, police figures show that in 2013 alone, 23,312 
Israelis were arrested for drug charges related to personal use - 
possession that was not for sale. This is nearly 300 more than the 
23,053 arrested in 2012.

Those statistics came up in comments to The Jerusalem Post Wednesday 
from Oren Leibovitch, the head of the Green Leaf pro-legalization 
party and editor-in-chief of news portal Cannabis.com.

"We are tired of talk, we want action," he said. "Two years ago he 
[Danino] said that people who use cannabis for personal use shouldn't 
be arrested, but then we saw an increase in arrests. Maybe there's a 
communication problem between him and his officers."

Around the same time that Danino spoke, the Northern District police 
sent a message out to journalists around the country, detailing the 
arrest of a man caught with a single, small cannabis plant in a ceramic pot.

Along with press releases about busts of large growing operations and 
traffickers stopped on the border, police spokesmen send out press 
releases on a near-daily basis about busts for minor amounts of cannabis.

In addition to medical marijuana users, in recent years there has 
been an explosion in the number of Israelis growing marijuana inside 
the country, largely to compensate for the drug's soaring prices due 
to Egypt's border fence and increased police enforcement.

Organized crime has also gotten in on the action, renting out 
suburban houses that are turned into growing facilities for hundreds 
of plants at a time. There have been instances of medical marijuana 
making its way onto the black market, as well.

Over the past year or so, several politicians have admitted to having 
smoked cannabis and/or have expressed their support for 
decriminalization of some sort.

In late December, a few months before he became an MK on the Bayit 
Yehudi list, Yinon Magal said in a Channel 2 interview that he had 
smoked marijuana "not that long ago," adding, "What happens in Goa 
[India], you know."

Magal wrote on Facebook Wednesday that Danino's comments followed a 
meeting he had held with Magal and other new MKs recently, at which 
he reportedly told them to reexamine state policies that see large 
amounts of manpower and resources invested in the prohibition of cannabis use.

The Bayit Yehudi MK also said he and Danino saw eye-to-eye on a 
proposal that Magal said he had made about ceasing to arrest people 
for personal cannabis use, as long as they were otherwise law-abiding citizens.

MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) admitted last year that she liked to smoke 
a joint and watch Game of Thrones. She has been a vocal supporter of 
legalization, along with far-right and libertarian former Likud MK 
Moshe Feiglin, whose wife is a medical marijuana user.

Earlier this month, Zandberg said she believed more support for 
medical marijuana could lead to increased support for legalizing 
cannabis for non-medical purposes.

"We have a great opportunity for progress. The public is ready for it 
and wants change," said Zandberg, whose comments came ahead of a 
speech she gave at a cannabis legalization rally in Tel Aviv.

A counterargument for Danino's comments was not long in coming, in 
the form of a statement by the Israel Anti-Drug Authority.

Declaring that "a statement like [Danino's] shouldn't come from a law 
enforcement official," the authority's chairman, Tzvi Hendel, claimed 
that "marijuana is a dangerous drug, a drug that does great damage to 
everyone, in particular to young people up to age 25, whose bodies 
and minds are still developing."

He said marijuana could have serious negative mental and physical 
effects on users, especially young ones, though he added that he 
supported a well-regulated medical marijuana industry.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom