With its moat, wall, barbed wire, armed guards and security cameras, the facility could be mistaken for a military base were it not for the pungent odor of marijuana in the air.
On the outskirts of a quiet village in northern Israel, 50,000 plants of 230 varieties grow at the country’s second-largest medical cannabis plantation.
“For cannabis, we are in the promised land, with a good climate, 300 days of sunshine each year and perfect levels of humidity,” said Tamir Gedo, CEO of BOL Pharma, a company authorized by the Israeli Ministry of Health to grow and distribute medical cannabis.
The recreational use of cannabis is illegal in the Jewish state, but for the past 10 years its therapeutic use has not only been permitted, but also encouraged.
Last year, doctors prescribed the herb to about 25,000 patients suffering from cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress and degenerative diseases.
The purpose is not to cure them, but to alleviate their symptoms.
The use of cannabis in medicine divides doctors around issues of addiction and behavioral problems such as aggression.
Nevertheless, it has long been known to revive lost appetite and to help in treating sleep disorders, anxiety and inflammation, its supporters say.
They say much research remains to be done, but it is advancing faster in Israel, where authorities allow human clinical trials, than in many other countries.
Entrepreneurs, investors and researchers are increasingly entering the business and searching for the holy grail of medicinal marijuana: a purified form of the drug with minimal side-effects, which can be administered in accurate doses.
Inside the fortified premises of BOL (Breath Of Life) Pharma are laboratories and greenhouses, with each plant monitored by software that remotely controls its biochemical parameters.
Growing cannabis for medical use demands careful supervision of active ingredients such as tetrahydrocannabinol, which gives recreational users their high, but is not recommended for all patients, particularly children.
“With the support of the [health] ministry, which has always had a pioneering attitude to this issue, we have built up expertise in clinical trials and we can share it with companies in the United States and Europe,” Gedo said.
He cites initial results of trials on patients with Crohn’s disease, which is characterized by chronic inflammation of the intestine, diarrhea and recurrent abdominal pain.
Forbidden to export its cannabis plants, Israel is concentrating instead on marketing its agronomic, medical and technological expertise in the hope of becoming a world hub in the field.
The prestigious Hebrew University of Jerusalem has just opened a cannabis research center joining 19 other teams from local academic institutions.
About 200 industry players gathered in Tel Aviv this month for Canna Tech, an international conference on the industry.
Suited salespeople, some a little red-eyed, despite a ban on consumption laid down by the organizers, exhibited products including electronic cannabis cigarettes, cannabis-based creams and ointments and a remedy for dry mouth.
Some start-ups have been focused on the plant’s by-products, others on user accessories, but a few have bigger ideas.
“Look at what has happened in the past two years, the speed at which legalization of cannabis is advancing,” said Saul Kaye, head of the first Israeli incubator for cannabis industry start-ups.
“We’re not going to miss this opportunity, and seeing what the first investors are putting on the table, we feel that it is going to be very big,” Kaye added.
In January, US tobacco giant Philip Morris plowed US$20 million into Israeli company Syke, which produces precision inhalers for medical cannabis.
At the same time, Israeli firm Eybna announced it had isolated therapeutic organic compounds from the plant without the psychoactive ingredients that make unprescribed use illegal.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese