MODI'IN, ISRAEL - When Noa Shulman came home from school, her mother, Yael, sat her down to eat, then spoon-fed her mashed sweet potatoes - mixed with cannabis oil. Noa, who has a severe form of autism, started to bite her own arm. "No sweetie," Yael gently told her 17-year-old daughter. "Here, have another bite of this." Noa is part of the first clinical trial in the world to test the benefits of medicinal marijuana for young people with autism, a potential breakthrough that would offer relief for millions of afflicted children - and their anguished parents. There is anecdotal evidence that marijuana's main non-psychoactive compound - cannabidiol or CBD - helps children in ways no other medication has. Now this first-of-its-kind scientific study is trying to determine if the link is real. [end]
JERUSALEM - Israel, which has been at the forefront of research into medical marijuana and the drug's commercialization, took a major step on Sunday toward officially decriminalizing its recreational use. At a time when many American states and European countries are loosening marijuana laws, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan that would impose fines rather than criminal penalties on those caught using the drug in public. Growing and selling marijuana, which is widely used here recreationally and medicinally, would remain illegal. [continues 372 words]
JERUSALEM - Israeli scientists began their pioneering research to isolate the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana with a 10-pound stash seized by the Tel Aviv police. That effort, in the 1960s, helped propel Israel to the vanguard of research into the plant's medicinal properties and lay the foundations for a medical marijuana industry. Now the nation's burgeoning pot business, backed by an unlikely coalition of farmers, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs and the country's ultra-Orthodox health minister, is going mainstream - and eyeing markets abroad. [continues 1086 words]
First Research into Legal Cannabis Usage Revealed at International Health Conference in Jerusalem The first study on the characteristics of patients with Health Ministry permission for treatment with medical marijuana - until now an unknown field - was revealed on Wednesday at the Sixth International Jerusalem Conference on Health Policy. The conference was organized by the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research. The study was led by Prof. Pesach Shvartzman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Health Sciences Faculty, who said even though medical cannabis has been legal for a decade and is licensed to more than 20,000 patients for relieving pain and other symptoms, "there has been no information about the users themselves." [continues 551 words]
In Israel, Where Pot Innovation Runs Deep, Companies Seek First-Mover Advantage The way Prof. Raphael Mechoulam remembers it, the toughest part about experimenting with cannabis was taking it on the bus. "We went to the police and they gave me 5 kilos of hashish and I went on the bus and everybody smelled something and said, ' What the hell is going on, what kind of smell is that?'" Unlike hordes of college students who excuse their drug use as a passing phase, Mechoulam was quite literally experimenting with marijuana. As a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, he was part of the team (alongside Yechiel Gaoni) responsible for the discovery of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, as well as much of the foundation research in the pharmacology of cannabinoids. [continues 633 words]
Spark-Up Nation has a pretty good ring to it, don't you think? Saul Kaye, the CEO of iCAN, certainly does. For Kaye, whose company is holding its second annual CannTech conference on cannabis in Israel next month, the Jewish state is fertile ground for growing a cannabis economy. "Israel is leading the world in research and development, from the medical side to the medical devices to the agro side," he told The Jerusalem Post in the company's co-working space in Beit Shemesh. [continues 730 words]
The Health Ministry will make it possible for patients licensed to receive medical cannabis to get it at a pharmacy, Deputy Health Minister MK Ya'acov Litzman announced on Monday at a session of the Knesset Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. The policy shift will make it easier for tens of thousands of people with pain and other chronic symptoms to get medical marijuana. "I saw medical marijuana last week for the first time," said Litzman, an MK from the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party. I was required by a suit in the High Court of Justice to deal with the issue," he said, adding that during his first four-year tenure as deputy health ministry, he "tried to stay away from dealing with the issue myself, but to hand it to professionals in the ministry. I am aware of the need to create order in the matter and to change the ministry's policy to make it easier for patients," the UTJ MK said. [continues 408 words]
TEL AVIV - There's yet another use for marijuana: It may help to heal broken bones, according to a new study. Researchers found that cannabidiol - an element of marijuana that does not get people high improved the healing process in rats with broken leg bones after eight weeks, according to a study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research by Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. Yankel Gabet of Tel Aviv's Bone Research Laboratory who led the study, said it found that the element "makes bones stronger during healing," which could prevent future fractures. This process occurs as cannabidiol, or CBD, enhances the maturation of collagen, the protein in connective tissue that "holds the body together." [continues 100 words]
Raphael Mechoulam Has Spent the Last 50 Years Studying Cannabinoid Field He's known as the father of medicinal marijuana research, but if you call Prof. Raphael Mechoulam that, he'll just laugh. But the name sticks, as he's spent the past 50 years studying the cannabinoid field and is responsible for much of what we know today. "From a medical point of view, here we have a treasure trove of material, which should be investigated." Mechoulam was born in 1930 to a Jewish family, when "the wounds of the First Wold War were not too painful anymore and Hitler was still considered a demented curiosity," Mechoulam said in an interview with Addiction. [continues 448 words]
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. [continues 860 words]
"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them?" That was President Richard Nixon speaking to his top aide, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, during a recorded White House meeting back in 1971. Fast forward some four decades, a new nonprofit group based in Portland, Ore., is hoping to prove Nixon right. Le'Or, founded about a year ago with seed funding from Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Company, wants to convince American Jews that ending marijuana prohibition belongs on the progressive Jewish communal agenda alongside marriage equality and immigration reform. [continues 1502 words]
Israel Is at Forefront of Research, but Export of Plant Doesn't Appear to Be on the Horizon Safed, Israel - In a greenhouse in the mountains of the Galilee, a technician in a lab coat is coddling a marijuana seedling that is coveted for life-saving medical benefits for epileptic children, doctors say - without the high. Named "Rafael," for a healing angel called upon by Moses, this varietal of cannabis is for people who don't want to be under the influence, and it is available in oral doses in Israel. [continues 1001 words]
Pledge of Legal Marijuana Present Nets Party Nis 100,000 in Donations A promise of marijuana in the future in exchange for campaign donations today helped the Aleh Yarok ("Green Leaf") party net more than NIS 100,000 in donations this week. The campaign, launched in a YouTube video on Saturday, promises donors who front it campaign donations that they will receive marijuana if and when the day comes that the plant is legalized in Israel. On Monday morning, the party opened a Headstart Web fund-raising campaign with a range of options for donors. The Web page includes a sliding scale of theoretical marijuana in exchange for contributions. At the lowest end, an NIS 50 donation entitles the donor to a savings bond redeemable for a single gram of marijuana once it's legalized. The bond, which features a marijuana flower on it, costs significantly less than the street value of a gram of marijuana in Israel (NIS 80-100), and by Wednesday the 56 spots available for that donation had all been purchased. [continues 321 words]
Experiment on Rats May Lead to Ways to Prevent Development of Ptsd in Humans Giving rats synthetic cannabinoids soon after a traumatic event can prevent post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms caused by the trauma and by reminders of it. This was discovered by Nachshon Korem and Dr. Irit Akirav of the University of Haifa's psychology department, as just published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. "The importance of this study is that it contributes to the understanding of the brain basis of the positive effect cannabis has on PTSD. This thus supports the necessity of performing human trials to examine potential ways to prevent the development of PTSD and anxiety disorders in response to a traumatic event," the researchers said. [continues 564 words]
Jerusalem District Court Judge Nava Ben-Or last week rejected a challenge to aspects of the government's current policy permitting the use of cannabis for medical purposes. The decision, in favor of medical supplier Sarel Corporation as well as the Health Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and other related parties, was handed down Thursday, but was announced by the court on Sunday. Ben-Or sat as an administrative judge on a petition by the Barak Corporation seeking that aspects of the cannabis policy be declared invalid. One was that the government failed to advertise properly the tender for which corporations would have a right to distribute cannabis and receive exemption from certain regulations. [continues 260 words]
Research into cannabis and its wide variety of components by Prof. Raphael Mechoulam was ignored for decades. Half a century ago, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and the National Institutes of Health in the US said they "weren't interested" in Prof. Raphael Mechoulam's research on the active ingredients in cannabis. Unwilling to further pursue organic chemistry research, they were rather shortsighted. "There wasn't a single lab in the USA that worked on cannabis. When I asked the NIH for a grant, they said: 'Sorry, we can't give it to you. This isn't an American problem," he recalled. Later, the NIH reconsidered and provided him with research money for 45 years. There is currently huge pressure throughout the US for medical cannabis to be made available to relevant patients. Even recreational use of the drug has been approved in the states of Colorado and Washington, and campaigns to legalize marijuana for non-medical use are being proposed in other states. [continues 1661 words]
Israel's newly fortified Egyptian border has delivered a severe blow to drug smugglers, forcing its hashish and marijuana smokers to deal with a new kind of high - soaring prices. The ravines that snake past rocky red mountains once provided a popular, low-risk route for traffickers to run drugs, women and African migrants into Israel over the southern frontier along Egypt's Sinai desert. But with a rise in Islamist militant violence in Sinai, Israel in 2011 accelerated the fortification of the border with a five-metre (16-foot)-high fence, state-of-the art surveillance and special military forces - with a crippling side effect for smugglers. [continues 520 words]
Health Minister Yael German (Yesh Atid) is due to present a proposal to the government to create order in the production, supply and authorization of medical cannabis to patients with serious diseases, on Sunday. Marijuana, grown for medical purposes in Israel and abroad, is provided by eight suppliers, and is known to relieve pain and other severe symptoms from certain diseases. However, its efficacy has not yet been scientifically proven, and it carries with it several risks. The law enforcement authorities are concerned about transfer of the legal medical cannabis to criminal elements and recreational users, whereas the Israel Medical Association is concerned about patients trying to take advantage of doctors for access to the drug. [continues 477 words]
A worker trims cannabis at a growing facility near the northern city of Safed, Israel. (Photographer: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) A few years back Israeli cannabis smokers grappled with the notion that their drug money often enriched the country's foes. These days, they're more likely to light up marijuana produced in Tel Aviv basements or villas outside Jerusalem than hashish smuggled in from abroad. "Marijuana has quietly become the main product here," said Daniel Nahum, a former paratrooper who first noticed the change when he began smelling pot in bohemian neighborhoods of Jaffa, an ancient port city south of Tel Aviv. [continues 815 words]
Previously Relied on Arab Countries Tighter Border Security Thwarts Shipments TEL AVIV - A few years back Israeli cannabis smokers grappled with the notion that their drug money often enriched the country's foes. These days, they're more likely to light up marijuana produced in Tel Aviv basements or villas outside Jerusalem than hashish smuggled in from abroad. "Marijuana has quietly become the main product here," said Daniel Nahum, a former paratrooper who first noticed the change when he began smelling pot in bohemian neighborhoods of Jaffa, an ancient port city south of Tel Aviv. [continues 677 words]
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]
The idea was simple: The Holocaust survivors would bring an ailing peer who would advocate legal uses for marijuana. He would speak Yiddish, in order to exploit the gimmick to the hilt, and a skilled videographer would film him for a televised election spot for the Holocaust Survivors and Grown-Up Green Leaf (Ale Yarok) party. The slate members had gathered in the living room of survivor Yaakov Kfir (No. 2). List head Ohad Shem Tov, on behalf of Green Leaf, was there, along with No. 4 Yaakov Hollander, on behalf of the survivors. Hollander was to appear in the clip, and he wore a tailored suit. There was even a general idea for the text, something that would link physical suffering with the relief that marijuana can offer Holocaust survivors, among others. [continues 863 words]
The Green Leaf Graduates, which split from the political party Aleh Yarok, best known for its advocacy of the legalization of cannabis, is making waves with its most recent announcement: a plan to incorporate the Holocaust Survivors Party. The Holocaust survivors are focused on the controversial issue of their state pension disbursement, which has been weakened by rising demands among the country's retired workers. The party accuses the government of misappropriating funds, donated by Germany, that were supposed to be given to Holocaust survivors. The survivors' party alleges that instead, those monies have been paid in part to thousands of other Israelis who have no connection to the Holocaust, to ease the government's pension burden. [continues 642 words]
I recently went to a party with a large group of people, a pleasant and joyful gathering. There were idle conversations and deep ones, bursts of laughter and stormy debates. Most of us were 40 years old or more - busy people, most with children. It seemed that for a few hours we were free of cares and worries. There were all kinds of refreshments, including high-quality alcoholic beverages. Most people drank wine, some sipped whiskey, and a few preferred vodka or Campari and orange juice. Some were smoking marijuana or hashish. Two people said they were on Ritalin, so they were staying away from alcohol, but they were calm and happy anyway. The next day, some of those present had headaches and took an Advil for relief. In the final tally, including the cost of the hangover, it was quite a successful party. [continues 621 words]
Two to 3 percent of eighth- and ninth-grade students take Ecstasy, or smoke marijuana or hash, 9 percent inhale vaporous substances such as glue, Tipex, or air-conditioning gas, 23 percent consume hard alcohol and around 15 percent smoke cigarettes regularly, according to a study commissioned by the Education Ministry. The Hoffman-Martins Research Institute, which conducted the survey, was charged with checking the effectiveness of anti-drug programs in schools. The study showed there was almost no difference found between students exposed to the programs and those who never attended a single session. [continues 598 words]
This fall, Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to vote for or against Question 2, an initiative that would decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. But in Israel, reforming marijuana laws goes beyond ballot initiatives and is the foundation of the Ale Yarok (Hebrew for "green leaf") party. Boaz Wachtel, 50, paid the required 13,000 shekels and collected 100 signatures to found the Ale Yarok party in 1999. A former assistant army attache at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., Wachtel earned his master's degree in management and marketing from Maryland University. [continues 340 words]
The Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee approved on Sunday a law banning the sale of bongs ? water pipes often used for the smoking of marijuana. The law, which was approved in the second and third readings, prohibits the sale and import of apparatuses geared for the production and consumption of illicit drugs. The main objective of the new law is to put an end to the sale of bongs at stores adjacent to educational institutions. The law stipulates that the punishment for the sale of bongs will not exceed five years incarceration. However, the Knesset committee withdrew the clause that prohibits the possession of paraphernalia used for personal drug use. [continues 157 words]
Rada stares into space. A month ago, she was released from the Neveh Tirza prison and has since been in a group for released prisoners planning to hunt for jobs. "Employment is the main experience for us in the world," the community social worker and group's moderator, Ruthie Ofir, tells the ex-convicts, as her eyes move among the women and rest on Rada. "Our work defines us, and it is actually our entry card into the world." Rada seems lost in thought. The moderator asks about her aims. She tries to respond, her lips move but her voice is inaudible. A grunt escapes after a few seconds, as if coming from the depths of despair. "I want to learn how not to use drugs" she says. "I'm not yet able to think in terms of work," she apologizes. [continues 1640 words]
Israel's Anti-Drug Authority has launched a new campaign featuring Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, aimed at deterring Israelis from smoking marijuana. As part of the campaign, the authority has published a poster showing the Hezbollah leader emerging genie-like from a bong (a waterpipe commonly used for smoking marijuana and hashish). Underneath the image, the poster reads: "Hezbollah is clearly planning to flood Israel with narcotics. Narcotics pose a strategic threat to Israeli society. Whoever uses narcotics is giving a hand to the next terrorist attack." [continues 106 words]
Tel Aviv has decided to join police in fighting against the party drug Hagigat and its substitutes, reports the Hebrew weekly Yediot Tel Aviv. The city has announced that local kiosks that continue to sell the substance may lose their business licenses, and issued warnings to three kiosks last week on the matter. Hagigat and other so-called party drugs have long been a thorn in the side of police and medical authorities, who say their unlisted and uncontrolled mix of chemicals is often illegal and can be dangerous. But attempts to curtail sales have proved difficult. The report said that until now the authorities have operated under drug laws, and if the chemicals in the drugs have not previously been declared illegal, police have had no right of redress. But even when the substances do contain illegal drugs, by the time the authorities analyze them and announce their findings, the manufacturers have already changed the name and the composition and have distributed a new substance to kiosks around the city. [continues 167 words]
Mind-Altering Drugs Common in Biblical Times, Professor Says JERUSALEM - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claims in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the first issue of Time and Mind, a new peer-reviewed British journal. [continues 236 words]
Inside Israel
