Nearly 400 Israeli farmers have applied for licenses to cultivate medical cannabis.
Un CTech site article says local authorities eased restrictions on cannabis production last year. Thus this decision has led to an increase in requests for authorization of cultivation.
On Monday, December 18, officials from the Israeli Ministry of Health provided this information to Israeli parliamentarians.
The ministry also received 250 requests from nurseries wishing to distribute plants, 95 pharmacies seeking to sell cannabis and 60 entrepreneurs wishing to open cannabis processing plants.
Regulators review applications and have already provided preliminary approval to the majority of applicants.
Remove administrative obstacles
Physicians will be able to start prescribing medical cannabis to patients within six months.
In addition, the chair of the Special Committee on Drugs and Alcohol Abuse in the Israeli parliament, Tamar Zandberg urged the ministry to speed up its efforts. She wants the bureaucratic hurdles that are hampering the growth of the medical marijuana industry in the country removed.
“The potential health and economic benefits of medical cannabis are incredible, and we are paying dearly for our delay,” Ms. Zandberg said.
An export policy
A law authorizing medical cannabis exports made its way to parliament. Especially since it has already received the support of important ministers. So they estimated that the sales could generate $ 1,1 billion for the Israeli economy. So the bill is on track to be passed next year.
Illegal cannabis trafficking is an obstacle to the goal of becoming a cannabis exporter, Yuval Landschaft, director of the health ministry's medical cannabis unit, said at Monday's committee meeting.
“What is generally grown in Israel either does not meet standards or is based on strains smuggled into the country,” Landschaft said. “We cannot build an export industry based on smuggled strains. "
It remains to be seen whether this development is a further step towards legalization. Last January, the Hebrew state had decriminalized consumption recreational cannabis.
