Tel Aviv has come up with a controversial new plan to give free heroin to addicts who have failed rehabilitation attempts, reports the Hebrew weekly Yediot Tel Aviv. City health and welfare officials are putting together the revolutionary plan, which is aimed at preventing the social damage caused by addicts trying to obtain money to buy the illicit drugs. According to the report, four out of every five heroin addicts who complete rehabilitation programs eventually end up back on the drug, and three out of every four property crimes are committed by drug addicts. The city's welfare service has decided to follow the example of some European countries and has come up with a plan to provide controlled quantities of heroin free to adult addicts who have failed several rehabilitation attempts. The distribution would be done at a specific medical clinic under the supervision of doctors. The plan will need to come before the Health Ministry for approval before it can go ahead. [continues 140 words]
A Tel Aviv medical clinic has quietly begun giving marijuana to cancer and AIDS sufferers, legally and with Health Ministry approval, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. The move, the first of its kind in Israel, is aimed at alleviating the pain suffered by the chronically and seriously ill. According to the report, the clinic began giving the drug to suffering patients about six months ago. By Israeli law, marijuana can legally be used as a medicine if a patient obtains a special license from the Health Ministry. The drug is approved only for patients with cancer, AIDS or Crohn's Disease (a chronic gastro-intestinal illness), and aims to help ease the chronic pain they suffer from the illnesses or as side-effects of treatments for the diseases. The clinic - which the Health Ministry has refused to identify publicly, reportedly either to prevent protests or to keep criminal elements away - gives out the drug in small, controlled quantities when a patient presents their license. [continues 108 words]
He travels between his secret grow site, where he caresses gently every bud with his own hands, and his living room, where he distributes the pot to tormented AIDS and cancer patients. Funerals add to his busy schedule. "I stopped counting them," he says. The only person in Israel who is licensed by the state to grow and distribute Medical Marijuana, is not yet thirty years old. He sees his work as a mission: "If I won't help them, nobody will." [continues 3996 words]
At the Health Ministry's request, five dangerous substances sold in kiosks and 24-hour shops were added to the list of "dangerous drugs" by the Knesset Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee on Monday. The addictive "mind-benders," which previously were illegal to sell but were not on the ministry's list of restricted imports, are called Halahit shel Ilanit (Ilanit's Hit); Halom Belavan (White Dream); Rakefet (Cyclamen); Aspirin Im Kritza (Aspirin With a Wink); and Hagigat Kayitz 2008 (Celebration of the Summer of 2008). [continues 197 words]
The first time D. smoked marijuana, he decided to make it a family affair. His wife, cousin and grandson sat with him as the 75-year-old Tel Aviv native carefully tucked the leaves into a Jamaican-accented pipe and lit up. "They left as soon as I started smoking. That was important, that is part of the rules," said D. "I never thought, never in a thousand years, that I would be a marijuana-smoker... I also never knew what marijuana really did." [continues 1197 words]
The pro-marijuana Green Leaf Party has told followers that marijuana is not kosher for Passover and that those who observe the holiday's dietary rules should take a break from it. It said products of the cannabis plant, including hemp seeds, had been grouped by rabbis with foods like beans that are off limits. But if cannabis is nonkosher for Passover, it said, "it is apparently kosher the rest of the year." [end]
A new bill presented to Knesset on Monday would allow for a greater amount of growing, cultivation, and manufacture of marijuana plants for medicinal purposes. The initiator of the bill, MK Professor Aryeh Eldad of the right-wing National Union party, stipulated that the growth and possession of marijuana which the bill would allow would be performed under the supervision of governmental authorities. According to Eldad, medical research has shown that the use of cannabis improves the condition of seriously ill patients, and therefore, his bill must be approved. [continues 55 words]
War, uh, what is it good for? Well, apparently not Middle Eastern pot smokers, who've now become the latest victims in the Israeli, Hezbollah conflict. According to reports, this past summer's war has forced an "eight-fold" spike in Israeli weed prices. The sky rocketing rates are believed to be a direct result of supply shortages forced by tightened security on Israel's northern boarder. Other cannabis transport routes such as the Sinai Desert corridor have been squeezed off by security patrols hunting for Palestinian gun runners. As a result, Israel now finds herself in something of a pot panic, with smokers shelling out dizzying sums of green to get their greens. In the words of one unnamed dealer, "They don't realize that all their wars are hurting the only thing that can bring a little quiet to the region." Do I smell a possible Nobel Peace Prize nominee? [end]
At a time when Palestinians and Israelis appears on the brink of a new cycle of violence one group has found a way to have the two come together for a whole new purpose - the legalization of marijuana. Aleh Yarok, Israel's branch of the Green Leaf Party, has organized the first ever conference for Palestinians and Israelis to discuss Marijuana Legalization. Scheduled to take place October 25 at the Hebrew University, the day-long event will see speakers from both populations discuss ways in which they can mutually advance their causes. [continues 323 words]
New York, June 20 (IANS) A chemical compound found in cannabis, also known as hashish or marijuana, may help lower blood pressure, say scientists after testing it on rats. Yehoshua Maor, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, has created a synthetic version of a minor cannabis constituent named cannabigerol, which has been shown to help in lowering blood pressure, reported science portal The News Medical. Maor carried out laboratory experiments with rats and found that this novel compound reduced blood pressure when administered to rats in relatively low doses. [continues 103 words]
A new method for lowering blood pressure with a compound that synthesizes a cannabis (hashish or marijuana) plant component has been developed by a Hebrew University doctoral student in pharmacology. For his work on the cardiovascular activity of cannabinoids (chemical compounds derived from cannabis), Yehoshua Maor has been named one of the winners of this year's Kaye Innovation Awards, to be presented on Tuesday during the university's 69th annual board of governors meetings. The Kaye Innovation Awards, established by British pharmaceutical industrialist Isaac Kaye, have been given annually since 1994 to encourage HU faculty, staff and students to develop innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential to benefit the university and society. [continues 1103 words]
A lean young man with black curly hair is standing on a small dune, his back to the sea, talking to the wind: "My brothers, come here. Come close, by my side. It's so beautiful here. Look at the sea. At nature. I am only from nature. Only green, bro [laughing]. Okay, green and black. Kfar Izun, eh? I'm king here. Shhh. Quiet, quiet. Don't talk. I decide. What I say, everyone does, yes? I'm the boss. I make the rules. No, no, don't answer me." [continues 3643 words]
Millions of people will celebrate International Marijuana Day, which calls for legalizing the private use of the cannabis plant, in over 150 cities throughout the world. In Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv and Sacher Park in Jerusalem, Israelis will gather for the ninth year in a row for a mass picnic in honor of the day. The heads of the Green Leaf Party, along with other cannabis legalization activists, were expected to speak at the gatherings. The chairwoman of the Al-Sam anti-drug organization, Liora Ofer, submitted an urgent appeal to the High Court of Justice last Thursday in which she demanded that the court prevent minors from participating in the day's activities. Ofer also demanded that police check for drugs at the entrances to the gatherings. [end]
Three Rockville Jewish day school students were arrested Friday in Israel for allegedly buying or using marijuana at a school there, according to e-mails sent to parents and sources familiar with the incident. Six other students from Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School were asked to leave the Israeli campus, where they were participating in the study abroad program. The three U.S. citizens allegedly purchased marijuana and brought it to the Alexander Muss Institute for Israel Education in Hod HaSharon, according to two e-mails sent to school families. Their six classmates were accused of either buying or using marijuana, said the e-mail from Jonathan Cannon, head of the school. [continues 433 words]
TEL AVIV - The parties my father votes for never get into Parliament. One year he'll vote for some economist with thick glasses who promises a revolution in tax law, the next year for an irate teacher with a ponytail who advocates a revolution in the school system, the year after that for a restaurateur in Jaffa who explains that only a new culinary approach can bring peace to the Middle East. The one thing these candidates have in common is a genuine desire for fundamental change. That and the naivete to believe such change is possible. My father, even at the age of 78, is naive enough to believe this, too. It's one of his finest qualities. [continues 630 words]
"We'll teach Blich's principal a lesson in civics," said Green Leaf chairman Boaz Wachtel. The high school customarily holds mock elections that are traditionally seen as predicting the outcome of national election results. Green Leaf's platform, which was unveiled Monday at a news conference in Tel Aviv, calls for the legalization of soft drugs, whose use would not entail punishment unless carried out in the presence of minors. It also calls for criminal cases to be closed for those convicted of using soft drugs. [continues 154 words]
The Tel Aviv municipality will soon be running a drug rehabilitation program developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Drug addicts enrolled in the program, called Narconon, spend extended periods in a sauna and receive food supplements and vitamins to increase their perspiration rate and speed up the detoxification of their bodies. The program is being financed by private donors. Despite City Hall's enthusiasm, the Health Ministry and the Israel Antidrug Authority have not approved the program. "In my opinion, the Tel Aviv municipality cannot start such a process without the approval of the Health Ministry and the Antidrug Authority," said authority director general Haim Messing last week. [continues 505 words]
Activists of the pro-cannabis Alei Yarok party are on a mission to bring relaxation to Gaza during disengagement. On Sunday, party chairman Boaz Wachtel and group members campaigned in Gaza for the government to issue a temporary order to allow settlers and security personnel to use cannabis during planned evacuation of settlements in August to reduce the level of violence. However, Wachtel and his cohorts, who support the disengagement plan, mostly got a negative response to their idea. "A brawl started and we were nearly tossed out of the Maoz Hayam Hotel" where settlers were holed up, he said. [continues 212 words]
Thousands of people gathered at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv yesterday to take part in the International Marijuana Day picnic and call for the legalization of marijuana. "This is a day of protest, to show how peaceful, unaggressive and law-abiding the people who support legalization are," said Lior Lubelski, one of the organizers. The event was far from being a potheads' convention, but rather resembled a picnic of Tel Avivians enjoying a sunny day on the grass. Instead of joints, reefers and bongs, there was sunshine, dub and reggae music and a few speeches. [continues 253 words]
Likud MK Yehiel Hazan called Yahad MK Roman Bronfman's participation in Saturday's World Marijuana Day events in Tel Aviv "cooperation with drug dealers." Hazan, the chairman of Anti-Drug Committee, added that he would file a complaint against Bronfman with the Knesset's Ethics Committee, Army Radio reported. Bronfman called upon the police to target drug dealers, in his speech to participants marking World Marijuana Day in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park Saturday evening. But he also supported the right to lobby against the prohibition of light drugs. Bronfman told Army Radio that the government's current policies are "weak." [continues 73 words]
Erik Siegal was a young American Jew with a drug problem. He chose to embrace a religious life, and came to Israel to learn Torah and start afresh. It didn't work out that way. Siegal, a yeshiva student at Neveh Zion in Telz Stone, west of Jerusalem, died this week of a heroin overdose. "A horrific series of events led to Erik's death," said an acquaintance. "He came to an unfamiliar country. He bought heroin that was different from what he was used to in the US. He sniffed too much, went to sleep and never woke up." [continues 442 words]
Hagigat has not been added to the dangerous drugs list because the official government printer has yet to publish the order in the government gazette Reshumot, members of the Knesset's anti-drug committee were astounded to hear yesterday. The move to outlaw hagigat, which is derived from the leaves of the khat plant and contains cathinone, a psychoactive ingredient that has an amphetamine-like effect, was recommended by the Health Ministry last month. Committee chairman MK Yehiel Hazan was outraged by the news. "It's a scandal that because of a shortage of paper at the official government printer, the order to add Hagigat to the list of dangerous drugs has not been published, even though the Knesset approved the amendment to this law." [end]
JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers traumatised by battle with the Palestinians have a new, unconventional weapon to exorcise their nightmares - marijuana. Under an experimental program, Delta-9 tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient found in the cannabis plant, will be administered to 15 soldiers over several months to fight post-traumatic stress disorder. Raphael Mechoulam, of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the project's chief researcher, described the program as a world first. He said the chemical could trick the brain into suppressing unwanted memories. [continues 126 words]
Army to Test THC on Soldiers With Post-Traumatic Stress JERUSALEM - A joint program between the Israeli Army's medical corps and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem will start treating soldiers suffering from combat fatigue with a component of cannabis to see if the drug might help alleviate the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The army issued a confirming press statement after an Israeli newspaper reported the mental health unit of the medical corps was about to test the THC from pot on soldiers returning from duty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where the Israeli military has been conducting day-to-day operations against Palestinians for the past four years. [continues 66 words]
President Moshe Katsav has pledged that he will neither pardon nor reduce the sentences of convicted drug dealers. Katsav gave this assurance on Sunday at his annual meeting with the National Authority for the War Against Drugs NAWAD). Deeply concerned about rising statistics of drug and alcohol abuse, both within and outside the work place and particularly among youth, Katsav called on the government, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, the Israel Manufacturers Association and employers throughout the country to spare no effort in fighting drug and alcohol consumption. [continues 207 words]
The IDF will soon begin using cannabis to treat soldiers suffering from combat stress, the military said Wednesday. An army statement said the military medical corps and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem would begin treating victims of post-traumatic stress - commonly known as shell shock - with THC, the active ingredient in the cannabis plant. It said the treatment would begin on an experimental basis. "The use of THC as part of the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was approved by military and civilian committees relevant to the subject," the statement said. [continues 85 words]
Uniformed and undercover police officers on Saturday shut down the International Marijuana Day event at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv after detaining 30 participants, including three minors, for suspected use and possession of marijuana. Boaz Wachtel, an organizer of the event and head of the "Green Leaf" political party was among those detained for questioning. At approximately 3:45 p.m., about four hours after the event began, police swarmed upon the sound system and shut it off as partygoers were dancing to Peter Tosh's reggae classic "Legalize It." A large crowd gathered around the police, with many shouting "Police state" and "Fascists." [continues 772 words]
Wanna score some government dope? In Canada, the courts recently ruled that patients suffering from Aids, cancer and other diseases were entitled to enjoy the benefits of "medical marijuana" - and not just any old marijuana, but official government marijuana, supplied to them by Health Canada, the government health system. Health Canada mulled it over and set up a program to grow the court-ordered Federal pot in a disused mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Of the first 10 patients to be supplied with the government weed, half claim it's the worst pot they've ever smoked. They're sending it back to Ottawa, and they want a full refund. [continues 1048 words]
Researchers Find Early Success With Genetic Engineering By engineering new genes into plant-killing fungi, scientists in Israel report they're creating extra-potent biological weed-whackers. The fungi, which can be applied via spraying, are still in the research phase. Before being widely used, said plant scientist Jonathan Gressel, the gene-modified fungi must be guaranteed safe. But if super-efficient weed-killing fungi do work and prove harmless, they could greatly improve farmers' ability to control weeds. Success should reduce food costs, energy use and herbicide application. [continues 474 words]
Eleven Israelis - Jews and Arabs - have been charged with running one of the largest drug smuggling networks in the North of the country since the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from Lebanon. The ring, captured about a month ago following a joint Shin Bet and northern police district investigation, provided the Hezbollah with intelligence and military equipment, including photographs of northern sites, night-vision glasses, an Israeli Statistical Yearbook and electronic dictionaries. In exchange, it received hundreds of kilgrams of hashish from Lebanon. [continues 680 words]
Drug use in East Jerusalem is rising steadily. Residents of the Palestinian city do not trust the Israeli police to efficiently combat the problem, but in the absence of enforcement institutions of their own they are helpless. Drug dealers in East Jerusalem operate almost openly, say social workers and residents who are trying to combat the phenomenon. They claim that very often the dealers operate right under the noses of Israeli police officers - beside the branch of the Interior Ministry in East Jerusalem, in the vicinity of Damascus Gate, near the Flower Gate, in the Ras al Amud neighborhood beside the police headquarters and in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, right on the route taken by students on their way to school. [continues 2149 words]
Supporters of the pro-drug legalization Green Leaf Party waited to see if their high expectations would lead to the euphoria of two Knesset mandates or crash and burn if the party falls just short of the 1.5% vote threshold at their post-election party last night. Exit polls showed the party teetering between 0-2 seats. "It would have been nice if the result were conclusive now," said Dan Goldenblatt, the party's director-general. "It's a problem to poll small parties." [continues 210 words]
JERUSALEM - Leaders of Israel's pro-marijuana party, who may win their first parliament seat in next week's national elections, were unexpectedly invited to the U.S. Embassy yesterday to explain their make-pot-not-war program. Members of the Green Leaf Party, whose emblem is an Israeli flag with a marijuana leaf, said they were asked by U.S. officials about their legislative agenda - in particular whether they support legalization of drugs other than pot. Dan Greenblatt, the second-ranked party candidate on Tuesday's ballot, was pleased by the invitations because he said the embassy usually invites only those parties already represented in the 120-seat Knesset. [continues 157 words]
"I want to represent all the people who feel that this country is disappearing through our fingers and has lost its direction," says Green Leaf party candidate Dan Goldenblatt. He still looks a little bemused to be told he is the Anglo most likely to end up in the next Knesset - most polls suggest the party will get a minimum of two seats. At 32, the Canadian-born lawyer has no parliamentary experience - but then neither does anyone in his party, which has placed him second on their slate for the Knesset. "No one is born an MK," says Goldenblatt. "If we get in "we'll just have to go through a very intensive learning period and get straight to work - and there's a lot of work to be done." [continues 987 words]
The Pot Party Battles Nerve Gas JAFFA--The country is going to pot. No one seems to mind. It makes us feel like we live in a normal 21st-century nation instead of some backward place where two peoples, neither of whom eats pork, kill each other over a piece of scrubby land. We're having elections at the end of this month. You've probably heard more about them than you ever wanted to know. Same here. The TV and newspapers talk about nothing else, except the sunny prospects for war with Iraq. [continues 1020 words]
The mainstream pollsters aren't saying it, but Boaz Wachtel of the Green Leaf Party ("Aleh Yarok") believes that he will serve as a member of the next Knesset. "I think we're going to be the surprise of these elections," he told The Jerusalem Post Sunday. According to party treasurer Shai Hakim, a Green Leaf-commissioned Gal Hadash (formerly Gallop) poll predicts 2.5 percent of the electorate voting for the party on January 28, with another 4% still undecided. "We wonder whether Mina Tzemah even asks about Green Leaf," he said. [continues 716 words]
Every few days, we hear how the IDF and police successfully intercepted a drug shipment at the Lebanese or Egyptian borders. These successes should be applauded, even though security officials admit that they catch less than 10 percent of the drugs smuggled into the country. At the same time, along the Hatzbani River and the coast of the Sea of Galilee, and at Israeli colleges and universities, hundreds of law- abiding citizens are apprehended each year because of fondness for the cannabis plant (marijuana and hashish). Most of these citizens, who come from all segments of Israeli society, are left with a criminal record that makes them ineligible for employment in the civil service. In the eyes of the state, they have become criminals. [continues 570 words]
Palestinian Authority police in Tulkarm took advantage of a curfew break to announce the impounding of a large number of marijuana plants. Many residents saw the statement Thursday as a sign the civil police are trying to resume normal operations, despite the destruction of their offices and the arrest of many of their men by the IDF. Tulkarm police chief Col. Bilal Abu Zeid's men discovered more than a thousand plants in the home of a local drug trafficker. The suspect escaped to Israel. [continues 488 words]
An Eilat resident who received permission from the Health Ministry to use marijuana for medicinal purposes is nevertheless unable to obtain the drug without breaking the law. The man, who suffers from cancer, is one of eight terminal patients who received an unusual ministry permit to grow, possess and use marijuana to ease their pain. But the drug is not legally available in Israel, and the ministry refused to supply them itself. Furthermore, the permit to grow the drug applies only to the patient himself rather than to his wife - and the bedridden terminal patient is physically incapable of doing so. The Eilat patient's wife even tried asking the police to give her husband some of the marijuana they had confiscated during drug raids, but they also refused. [continues 124 words]
The Health Ministry is to be commended for granting a terminally-ill cancer patient permission to smoke marijuana to ease his suffering. Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but the marijuana prohibition itself should be subjected to a thorough cost-benefit analysis. There is no evidence that punitive marijuana laws do anything other than burden otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. Consider the experience of the United States, the former record holder in citizens incarcerated. [continues 135 words]
The Health Ministry recently gave a terminally-ill cancer patient permission to smoke marijuana to ease his suffering. The ministry's approval was rushed through the required channels because of the patient's serious condition. Over the past six years, the ministry has given similar permission to eight others, accepting half the requests it received. The director- general of the Health Ministry, Dr. Boaz Lev, said the permit had been expedited due to the patient's condition and the accompanying medical problems. [continues 223 words]
A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied opium and hashish for medicinal purposes to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers say. Ancient ceramic pots containing residues of the drugs, most of them nearly identical in shape and about five inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1400 BCE, said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University. The drugs were probably used as medicine and the finds are helping researchers better understand how ancient people treated illness and disease. [continues 640 words]
Researchers: Narcotics Trade Thrived in Bronze Age Middle East Jerusalem - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers say. Ancient ceramic pots, most nearly identical in shape and about five inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. [continues 343 words]
JERUSALEM - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers say. Ancient ceramic pots, most of them nearly identical in shape and about 5 inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. [continues 541 words]
JERUSALEM (AP) - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers say. Ancient ceramic pots, most of them nearly identical in shape and about five inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. [continues 353 words]
JERUSALEM -- A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers say. Ancient ceramic pots, most of them about 5 inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. The drugs were probably used as medicine, and the finds are helping researchers better understand how ancient people treated illness and disease. [continues 180 words]
Ancient Opium Pots Are A Common Discovery In Middle Eastern Digs JERUSALEM (AP) - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of years, researchers said. Ancient ceramic pots, most of them nearly identical in shape and about 12 centimetres long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. [continues 648 words]
Jerusalem -- Hey man, wanna score some cannabinoids? An Israeli pharmaceutical company is working on a drug mimicking cannabis' chemical constituents -- cannabinoids -- to offer marijuana's therapeutic benefits without the buzz. The new type of synthetic cannabinoid is "equivalent to ... the best-quality marijuana," says Dr. George Fink, vice president of research at Pharmos, which presented its new bicyclic dextrocannabinoic compounds at the BIO CEO and Investor conference in New York in February. The cannabis plant contains over 60 cannabinoids. When you smoke (or eat) pot, the cannabinoids bind to two cannabinoid receptors in the body, called CB1 and CB2. CB1 appears to enhance appetite, reduce pain and ease muscle spasms -- and it is also the receptor that produces the psychotropic effects smokers want. [continues 535 words]
The Supreme Court yesterday quashed a two-year jail sentence for convicted drug dealer Maxim Cohen after it learned that the police had concealed the fact that an agent involved in the arrest had sold drugs during his police work. Justices Dalia Dorner, Eliezer Rivlin and Miriam Naor, however, accepted an arrangement between the court-appointed defense attorney and the prosecution, whereby Cohen's two-year sentence would be run concurrently with a sentence he is currently serving. The agent, Morris Ben-Hamu, a former prison guard, was used by Be'er Sheva police for a four-month period in 1999. The officers who directed Ben-Hamu used hidden recording equipment to document drug deals at addresses provided by the police. It became apparent, however, that the police did not monitor Ben-Hamu's actions once he had been sent to his destination, and did not check whether he turned the recording equipment off during his mission. [continues 51 words]
(August 23) - While fewer Israeli teens use drugs than their US peers, the problem is on the rise. An Ecstasy overdose almost killed his friend two years ago. So Uri, now 20, no longer pops those pills. Although he still smokes pot he stays away from what he considers to be "dangerous drugs." Teens in Israel are more likely to first reach for alcohol, then cigarettes and then marijuana. Still, professionals are concerned by 1998 figures showing that 5.3% of students aged 12 to 18 and 13.6% of dropouts are lighting up, shooting up and popping illegal drugs. [continues 3067 words]
Inside Israel
