History and background
In 2006, the future of marijuana in Israel changed when Tikun-olam got the first permit to serve as a cannabis grower, and supply patients with medical cannabis. This act was just the beginning of what we call the medical cannabis revolution. It started with some 100 permit holders, and grew all the way to 1800 by 2009 and more than 22.000 in 2015.
In 2011 the government decided that in order to respect the country’s 1973 “dangerous drugs ordinance” and the 1961 “Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs”, it had to name an agency designated to the matter of marijuana. The medical cannabis unit in the Israeli ministry of health was created in April 2013 and serves as the “government agency” since then.
In December 2013 the government met again and drafted a preliminary layout for medical cannabis standards. It had specific references on subjects like the security of the facilities, medical indications for marijuana treatment, medical standards for cannabis etc. but it was very hectic. and it seems to still consider importing cannabis products as a long term solution. It did, however, demanded from the ministry of health to consult with the ministry of agriculture, the ministry of public security and the Israeli police, and draft a firm layout for the use of medicinal cannabis. The government decision mainly preserved the status quo for the time being. The medical cannabis industry were kept in a regulatory limbo. The agency designated to the matter had no firm guidelines, and this reality continued for a few years.
The 2016 marijuana reform in Israel
A decade after the revolution started, in June 2016, the government met again. This time the ministry of health came back prepared, big time. It created a medicinal cannabis reform. In one hand, the plant is considered a dangerous drug and on the other it is accepted, and has been proven, as a remedy for more and more conditions. Cannabis gets more and more popularity internationaly and in Israel. The reform doesn’t speak of legalisation nor of decriminalisation but of Medicalisation of the plant. In a way, this is the ministry of health’s way to be innovative.
The core of medicalizing the cannabis plant, is the creation of good practices standards for this industry. The supply chain is divided into different sections:
A) Cultivation farm for Medical Cannabis IMC‐GAP grade – for cultivation of Cannabis strains with predefined and supervised range of concentrations of active ingredients.
B) Manufacturers that will produce generic and uniform Medicinal Cannabis products IMC‐GMP grade.
C) Distribution to pharmacies IMC‐GDP grade.
D) Availability of Standardized Cannabis Medicinal products in the pharmacies – the pharmacists will undergo a special training in aspects of maintenance, prescription issuing, distribution and patient instruction.
E) Supervision – complying with security standards IMC‐GSP for security, prevention of diversion and supervision of adequacy of medical practice.
The reform is still ongoing, the division of the supply chain into new standardised individual units will be completed in the next two years. In the meanwhile, following another order of the government 2016 decision, an interministerial committee was assigned with exploring the possibility of medical cannabis export from Israel.