MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) submitted what she called the first-ever bill to decriminalize private marijuana use in Israel on Wednesday.

Under Zandberg's legislation, personal use of small amounts of marijuana would not be considered a crime. The bill also differentiates between the crimes of holding large amounts of cannabis, distributing and selling it, and creates levels of criminality by amount.

"The time has come to stop the mistaken and wasteful policy against cannabis users," Zanberg wrote on her blog. "Slowly, slowly the truth is coming out: Cannabis is not harmful or addictive, at least not more than other, legal substances.

[continues 129 words]

The Israel Medical Association voiced strong opposition to a private members' bill that would allow every physician, including general practitioners, to give patients prescriptions for medical cannabis.

IMA chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman sent a letter on Thursday to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni about the bill, due to be discussed in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. The bill was introduced by Likud MKs Haim Katz and Moshe Feiglin.

In his letter, Eidelman said that marijuana is registered by the state as a "dangerous drug," illegal to possess and use except for specific medical uses in seriously ill patients. A license to consume it is given only when no other treatment has been helpful. Only a small number of medical experts today are allowed to prescribe it, due to the risk that it will reach the hands of non-patients for "recreational uses."

[continues 202 words]

Legalization of marijuana could be a gold mine for the state coffers, bringing in as much as NIS 1.6 billion in annual tax revenues and savings for law enforcement.

It would save police and the courts some NIS 690m. in annual costs, and bring the state NIS 950m. in tax revenue, according to a study released on Wednesday by the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies.

Each year there are more than 18,000 criminal cases 5.2 percent of the total involving marijuana, over 70% of them involving amounts that are for "personal use," the researchers said. Furthermore, some 5.4% of prison inmates are serving time for marijuana-related charges.

[continues 246 words]

Tel Aviv's Sourasky Medical Center confirmed on Tuesday that due to incidents of verbal and physical violence against doctors in its pain clinic, they would not issue prescriptions for new patients seeking medical marijuana. Clinic doctors told Ynet that they suffer on a daily basis from such violence. About 1,000 patients receive medical cannabis at the clinic.

[end]

If the medical community determines the drug is an effective treatment for pain, Jewish law raises no barriers to its use for palliative purposes.

Does Jewish law (Halacha) permit the use of medical? Yes. At the very least, a strong argument can be made that it does. Whether governments should permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes is another question. The answer to that question depends upon a complex of factors to which Halacha doesn't speak with precision. But should any community decide to legalize marijuana as a treatment for pain under appropriate medical supervision, that decision would find strong support from the sources of Jewish law.

[continues 792 words]

(UPI) - A tiny amount of tetrahydrocannabinol - the active ingredient in marijuana - may protect against some brain damage in mice, an Israeli researcher says.

Researchers injected mice with a low dose of THC either before or after exposing them to brain trauma. Similar rodents in a control group were also injured but received no THC, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The study, published in Behavioural Brain Research and Experimental Brain Research, found about a month or two later, the mice that got the THC did better in behavioral tests measuring learning and memory and showed they had greater amounts of neuroprotective chemicals than the control-group mice.

[continues 65 words]

SAFED, Israel - Among the rows of plants growing at a government-approved medical marijuana farm in the Galilee hills in northern Israel, one strain is said to have the strongest psychoactive effect of any cannabis in the world. Another, rich in anti-inflammatory properties, will not get you high at all.

Marijuana is illegal in Israel, but farms like this one, at a secret location near the city of Safed, are at the cutting edge of the debate on the legality, benefits and risks of medicinal cannabis. Its staff members wear white lab coats, its growing facilities are fitted with state-of-the-art equipment for controlling light and humidity, and its grounds are protected by security cameras and guards.

[continues 1050 words]

KFAR BIRYA, Israel: At the end of an unpaved road, in a quiet suburb of a sleepy town in northern Israel, horticultural revolutionaries are growing a strain of cannabis they say relieves symptoms of some chronic illnesses but without the psychotic effects that can accompany regular weed.

Behind the fence at Tikkun Olam -- Hebrew for "fixing the world" -- the green-fingered staff say they have created an Israeli first, by breeding a cannabis plant almost free of THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance that gives smokers their high but can also carry a serious downside.

[continues 634 words]

Israel Police say Marijuana Day rally where people publicly smoke cannabis will nor be tolerated in Tel Aviv.

Israeli cannabis activists have legally challenged a police ban on a Marijuana Day rally, in which people publicly smoke the substance in protest of its illegal status every year.

But the Israel Police notified the activists that any such rally in Tel Aviv would not be tolerated, and refused to authorize the event, saying it constitutes a blatant violation of the law.

The activists, represented by the Dor Emet (Truth Generation) interest group, placed a High court appeal against the decision.

[continues 139 words]

Most cancer patients currently being treated with medical marijuana are advised of the option only in the advanced stages of the illness, according to researchers.

More than two-thirds of cancer patients who were prescribed medical marijuana to combat pain are reportedly satisfied with the treatment, according to a comprehensive study conducted for the first time in Israel.

The study - conducted recently at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, in conjunction with the Israel Cancer Association - involved 264 cancer patients who were treated with medical marijuana for a full year.

[continues 551 words]

JERUSALEM--Marijuana administered in a timely fashion could block the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in rats, a new study conducted at Haifa University has found.

The study, conducted by researchers at the university's psychology department and published in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal, found that rats that were treated with marijuana within 24 hours of a traumatic experience, successfully avoided any symptoms of PTSD.

"There is a critical 'window of time' after trauma, during which synthetic marijuana can help prevent symptoms similar to PTSD in rats," said Dr. Irit Akirav who led the study.

[continues 211 words]

Cabinet Agrees on Arrangements and Supervision of Marijuana Supply in Medical Centers and for Research; 6,000 People in Israel Currently Treated With Medical Cannabis.

The Israeli government approved on Sunday arrangements and supervision regarding the supply of cannabis for medical and research purposes.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's media adviser said "the Health Ministry will - in coordination with the Israel Police and the Israel Anti-Drug Authority - oversee the foregoing and will also be responsible for supplies from imports and local cultivation."

[continues 74 words]

6,000 patients a year now request, receive medical marijuana, but predictions say number of authorizations could reach 40,000 in 2016.

Medical marijuana might best be supplied to authorized patients as part of the basket of health services determined by the Health Ministry and raised by local growers rather than imported, Knesset Anti-Drug Committee chairman MK Taleb a- San'a said on Tuesday.

Currently, medical marijuana is supplied exclusively by local growers, but the Israel Police would prefer it be imported to more carefully monitor it and prevent illegal use, which it said has been a problem.

[continues 593 words]

Government expected to decide on establishing a state agency which will be responsible for authorizing, processing requests for medical cannabis.

In two weeks, the government will decide whether to establish a state agency responsible for the authorization and processing of requests for medical marijuana for relieving patients with pain that responds to no other treatment.

At a conference on Wednesday at Hadassah-University Hospital, Ein Kerem, Dr. Yehuda Baruch, a psychiatrist at the Abarbanel Mental Health Center in Bat Yam who has in the last two years single-handedly been responsible for the matter, predicted the number of authorizations could reach 40,000 in five years.

[continues 183 words]

Police say they suspect that a significant amount of marijuana was given to criminal organizations that had acquired fake prescriptions.

Dozens of disabled and terminally ill people protested outside a Tel Aviv medical marijuana clinic on Sunday, in response to recent police actions against the facility.

The protest came four days after police raided a storefront on Rehov Ibn Gvirol run by Tikkun Olam, where patients would come to get their doses. Police arrested two managers of the storefront and held them for questioning for several hours, on suspicion of illegal drug trafficking.

[continues 413 words]

Police raided Tikkun Olam clinic, reportedly preventing patients from receiving monthly medical cannabis doses.

Police on Wednesday raided the Tel Aviv offices of a medical marijuana supplier and arrested two managers suspected of drug trafficking.

The raids took place in the morning at the Tikkun Olam clinic in north Tel Aviv, as well as a nearby storefront operated by the organization, where the 2,000 patients who they supply with medical marijuana each month come to receive their cannabis.

On Wednesday afternoon, the storefront was shuttered and a note outside told patients that they would not be able to receive their doses for the time being.

[continues 322 words]

Store suspected of overselling to customers, which make up overwhelming majority of the 500 patients allowed to use cannabis by Health Ministry.

Police detained three people associated with a cannabis distribution outlet in Tel Aviv for questioning yesterday, on suspicion of selling more than the prescribed amount of drugs to customers.

The store is operated by the Tikun Olam non-profit organization, the Health Ministry's official grower and supplier of medical marijuana. The overwhelming majority - 85 percent - of the 500 patients permitted by the Health Ministry to use cannabis are clients of this store, located on Tel Aviv's Ibn Gvirol Street.

[continues 344 words]

This country could become not only one of the few countries manufacturing marijuana-based medicines but also a key world pioneer in the field.

The standard image of cannabis is twofold. First is the one presented in the West's films and pop subculture. Cannabis, also known as marijuana and "grass," has been famous for centuries as a psychoactive, dreamy substance which, at the same time, is illegal in most countries and attracts a penalty if the user is caught.

Several generations of anti-establishment youth got off on hiding it and being part of a subversive underclass. Their non-cannabis-using peers were relegated to the term "squares" and accused of being boring.

[continues 939 words]

Health Ministry Authorizes Five More Doctors To Prescribe Medical Marijuana To Patients With Chronic Pain

The Health Ministry on Sunday authorized doctors from five Israeli different hospitals to prescribe medical marijuana to patients suffering from cancer and chronic pain.

The ministry is launching a pilot program meant to increase the number of doctors allowed to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes.

According to a ministry official, in the future department managers in the kupot holim, the Israeli health maintenance organizations, will be able to prescribe medical marijuana to patients.

[continues 189 words]

"The 90s were the golden age of chemicals. In every forest clearing there were people taking ecstasy and LSD and dancing themselves silly. People didn't get married unless pills were promised to the guests. Thousands protested at Rabin Square urging us to 'give trance a chance.' There was a feeling that something was about to change. But in Israel, people love to party, but they don't love paying for it. I lost millions, I collapsed financially, and that is how I found myself in California. Very quickly, I became the owner of three grow houses of medicinal marijuana, until six months ago, when I go a phone call from my American friend Rick Doblin."

[continues 2161 words]