Janitors or Criminals? – Group of Israeli doctors caught illegally selling medical marijuana cards

In Israel, recreational marijuana is legal but partially decriminalized, so penalties for personal use and possession of 15 grams or less are not usually enforced by authorities. However, cannabis is fully legal in Israel for some medical uses, although it is banned for other uses. With the rise of both medicinal and recreational use of cannabis in the 2010s and the creation of a political party dedicated solely to this cause, public and bipartisan support for full decriminalization of cannabis increased. On July 19, 2018, the Knesset passed legislation decriminalizing cannabis, although those in support of marijuana use insisted that it doesn’t exactly represent full decriminalization. The law came into effect on April 1, 2019. On June 25, 2020, the Knesset began debating new laws that would legalize possession of up to 50 grams of cannabis.

Currently, if a citizen is caught using cannabis in a public place for the first or second time and has never used cannabis before, they will not be arrested but will be fined NIS 1000 (about US$310) for the first offense and 2000 occupies NIS (about $620) for the second. Money from these fines goes to education and rehabilitation programs.

The first major medical marijuana discoveries are credited to Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who isolated THC from cannabis in 1964 and later discovered anandamide. Israeli scientists have studied the properties and medicinal uses of marijuana since the 1960s. The use of medicinal cannabis has been legal in Israel since the 1990s.

According to a 2017 survey, 27% of Israelis between the ages of 18 and 65 had used cannabis in the previous year, up from 8.8% in 2009. Israel now has the highest annual cannabis use rates in the world, followed by Iceland and the United States, which rates of 18% and 16%, respectively.

MEDICAL CANNABIS IN ISRAEL

In 1964, Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University Center for Pain Research in Jerusalem and Yechiel Gaoni of the Weizmann Institute were the first Israeli researchers to discover THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that gives users a high.

Since the early 1990s, Israel has legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, including to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic pain-related conditions such as Parkinson’s and Crohn’s disease. Cannabis can be consumed orally or sublingually by ingesting oil for patients.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the active ingredients in cannabis, was first used in 2004 by the Israeli military as an experimental technique for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in troops.

In 2012 there were around 10,000 people officially registered using medicinal cannabis. In Israel, eight licensed cannabis manufacturing facilities make the drug available to patients with a license from the Ministry of Health and a doctor’s prescription for medical use, either through a shop or in a clinic.

While recreational marijuana use is banned in Israel, the government partially decriminalized it in 2017, replacing criminal procedures for first and second offenders with fines and treatment.

Since the early 1990s, people with Department of Health permits have been able to use the substance medicinally to treat some chronic conditions.

DOCTORS IN ISRAEL TRYING TO BENEFIT FROM MEDICAL CANNABIS LICENSES

On Monday, police arrested a group of senior doctors, including six doctors and five other suspects, who allegedly sold illegal medical cannabis licenses online and were operating from twenty different locations. The police investigation revealed that the suspects had been promoting licenses for the use of medicinal cannabis through various channels, including the news service Telegram. Some of the defendants were senior physicians qualified by the Ministry of Health to issue such a license.

After paying hundreds of shekels, customers received their approval within 24 hours without having to submit a medical history or undergo an examination.

According to Eran Shefi, head of Lahav 433’s cybercrime unit, “the deep-cover investigation uncovered a ring of doctors and dealers who worked together to illegally issue permits at thousands of shekels per license.” With those permits, customers could purchase medical marijuana from any licensed dispensary, he added.

The people were taken into custody and the undercover investigations were made public.

Customers also used the criminal network to buy license renewals and higher-dose approvals. The network is believed to have committed crimes totaling over NIS 17 million. The service was also used by drug dealers to obtain medicinal cannabis, which they then resold to customers for a profit.

According to the police, the perpetrators are accused of drug trafficking, fraud, abuse of duty, bribery, money laundering and tax offenses. When the suspects appear before the Rishon Lezion District Court on Monday, the authorities intend to apply for an extension of their detention.

ANOTHER COMPANY HELP FALSIFY STORIES TO OBTAIN THE ILLEGAL LICENSES

Police also learned of a company that was offering a package of services to the criminal network, posing as a legitimate business, and helping people abuse their legal opportunities for medicinal cannabis.

The company offered assistance to anyone looking to purchase a license, helping them create a “cover story” they could use to justify cannabis use counseling and showing them how to obtain the necessary medical records.

The company’s doctors and other suspects in the case face charges of bribes, embezzlement, fraudulent practices, drug trafficking and distribution, counterfeiting under serious circumstances and violations of the Income Tax Code, among several other offenses.

FINAL EFFECT

Despite being provided with relaxed recreational cannabis laws, a group of doctors illegally selling medical cannabis licenses hoped to benefit from citizens and criminals alike, who aimed to exploit Israel’s perfectly legal medical cannabis laws. The cannabis law in Israel only partially decriminalized recreational cannabis, but does so fully for medicinal cannabis, making obtaining a medicinal cannabis license all the more desirable.

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