Medical Cannabis Backlash in Israel
Health officials in Israel have been cracking down on
medical cannabis lately, leading some to point to a conspiracy between the
government and pharmaceutical companies.
According to ynet Magazin
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap radius”]H[/dropcap]ealth officials in Israel have been cracking down on medical cannabis lately, leading some to point to a conspiracy between the government and pharmaceutical companies.
According to ynet Magazine, a young man named Eitan who resides in Israel has been relying on medical cannabis to treat his severe pain and weight loss due to pancreatic cancer. While the plant provides him with great relief, he fears that once his medical permit expires, it will not be renewed, since hospitals and pain clinics are now being instructed not to renew permits. This is the fate of many in Israel who have been relying on cannabis to treat their pain.
Israeli health officials, on the other hand, claim that they are cracking down because people are abusing the system to simply legalize their smoking, rather than actually treating any medical conditions.
“You have to understand that we have no problem with the use of medical cannabis,” a senior doctor who wished to remain anonymous told ynet News. “We have a problem with people who come to the pain clinics to try to get a permit and thereby create a massive workload at the clinics, which then end
up handling only requests for permits. It’s unbelievable. If they were to establish clinics dedicated solely to cannabis treatment, the situation would improve dramatically. All the claims about ties between doctors or the Health Ministry and the pharmaceutical companies are baseless—if not insane—figments
of the imagination.”
While doctors and pharmaceutical companies in Israel continue to deny that there is any connection between pharmaceutical interests and cannabis regulations, it cannot be denied that people in Israel
who are reaching out because they need medical cannabis for chronic conditions are being denied and shut down. Even if there is no conspiracy and these larger interests aren’t to blame, but rather the conservative biases of the country, it is still tragic that these people are being denied the treatment they need. Hopefully, as the rest of the world continues to embrace legal cannabis, Israel
will follow suit.
