Yahoo – AFP,
Daphne Rousseau, 27 March 2016
Kfar Pines
(Israel) (AFP) - With its moat, wall, barbed wire, armed guards and security
cameras, the facility could be mistaken for a military base if it weren't for
the pungent odour of marijuana in the air.
Here, 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.
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
(AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
|
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 behavioural
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 and 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 (THC), 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," said Gedo.
He cites
initial results of trials on patients with Crohn's disease, which is
characterised by chronic inflammation of the intestine, diarrhoea and recurrent
abdominal pain.
A world
hash hub?
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
centre 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 organisers, exhibited products including electronic cannabis cigarettes,
cannabis-based creams and ointments and a remedy for dry mouth.
Some
startups are 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 legalisation of
cannabis is advancing," said Saul Kaye, head of the first Israeli
incubator for cannabis industry startups.
"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."
In January,
US tobacco giant Philip Morris ploughed $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 which make
unprescribed use illegal.
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