Sarah Friedman posted: " Some stunts in life are dangerous, some are politically motivated, and some are just plain awesome! Bags of cannabis rained down on Israel yesterday, highlighting the contradiction of the country. As one of the most cannabis user-friendly and research-or"
Some stunts in life are dangerous, some are politically motivated, and some are just plain awesome! Bags of cannabis rained down on Israel yesterday, highlighting the contradiction of the country. As one of the most cannabis user-friendly and research-oriented countries, Israel has been dragging behind in terms of legalization.
Seriously, falling from the sky?
Yup, that's exactly what happened. Yesterday, a drone flew over Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, a central meeting point, and the spot where many protests and festivities are held. Yesterday it was a protest of a different kind as a drone flying overhead dropped bags of what is believed to be cannabis, over the square, leaving eager passers-by to run after the free swag.
Two men have been arrested so far, and there's a possible link to activist group Green Drone Group which has been pushing for legalization, and which made the statements on its Telegram account: 'the time has come', and 'Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the Green Drone sending you free cannabis from the skies' which doesn't claim responsibility per say, but does give credence to the belief they're probably behind the incident.
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Cannabis laws in Israel
In a minute we'll get to just how much at the forefront of cannabis research and development Israel is, but that information can be misleading when looking at the actual laws that govern the country.
Basically, for as advanced and understanding as Israel is when it comes to cannabis, it's illegal to possess or use it recreationally. Israel passed a rather pathetic version of decriminalization which looks to be way more about collecting fines than anything else, but which does allow for a small amount of personal use protection.
While all parts of the cannabis plant are prohibited by law (except for oil extracted from seeds), a decriminalization policy which went into effect in April 2019 allows for small amounts to be used in a home. No actual amount was specified to define this, but the expectation is that up to 15 grams is acceptable. Public possession still results in fines of approximately $275, but this is way down from the previous amount of approximately $58,789.
Of course that's just for the first infraction, and the amount doubles the second time, and turns into a criminal investigation the third time, complete with the loss of a driver's license or gun. The law used to stipulate that persons under the age of 16 who were caught with cannabis at a school other than their own, were subject to five years in prison. This seems to be updated as well, with the new law stipulating that minors under 18 face prison if they reject a treatment program.
The Israel Anti-Drug Authority, which became the Authority of Combatting Drug and Alcohol Abuse, acknowledges that other avenues, like rehabilitation, more lenient sentences, and promoting safe drug use to those who are using (like providing clean needles) might be better in certain situations, but how often these measures are used in contrast to large fines and jail time is hard to say.
Selling, supply, and cultivation crimes
Like anywhere else, sale and supply crimes are highly illegal crimes and come with up to 20 years in prison, or 25 if there are extenuating circumstances like selling to a minor. In fact, the sale and supply of drug paraphernalia is also illegal, although growing equipment has become very popular in the country.
In terms of cultivation, according to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, it's illegal, and carries a sentence of up to 20 years. Having said that, in 2017, an order was issued stating that growing small amounts of cannabis at home for personal use exclusively, would be treated as only a minor violation. This was done to differentiate between large-scale, and small-scale growers; however, it was never meant to be public, and when it was made public via the publication Cannabis, the response from law enforcement was that there had been no change legally.
Cultivation was not a part of the prior decriminalization measures, but with elections coming up, it's reported that current PM Netanyahu might push for public recreational smoking, and personal cultivation measures. This is not the case right now though.
CBD?
In 2016 it was brought up in Knesset to have CBD removed from the list of illegal dangerous drugs. The CBD market has blossomed quite well in Israel since that point.
And now, medical
The most interesting thing about Israel when it comes to cannabis, is how far ahead of the rest of the world it is in terms of cannabis research. In fact, the majority of the early groundbreaking research done into cannabis, was done in Israel. Which makes it that much more of a headscratcher that legalization efforts have been so slow, and even decriminalization seems to be solely monetarily motivated.
In 1999 the Israeli government approved medicinal cannabis 3-4 decades after some of the first big breakthroughs were made. At that time it was limited to terminal cancer and AIDS patients though, with no actual medical market in place. This was all updated in 2007 by the Israeli Ministry of Health creating an official medical cannabis policy. This gave patients the ability to get free treatment.
In the same year, the first licenses were given out to breed and grow cannabis in Israel for medicinal purposes. The original license was given to the company Tikun Olam, which is a leading global cannabis business today. Medical cannabis is accessible through a government issued permit gotten from a specialist, not a standard GP.
It wasn't until 2019 that a bill was introduced to permit exporting medical cannabis – another move seemingly late in the game for a country that should have seen the rise of this market coming long before other countries. Regardless, according to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, "I'm glad this is finally happening. It opens a very big market in Israel… I am glad we can reap the profits here."
Industrial hemp
Industrial hemp and medical/edible cannabis often go together. While this highlights a gross, practically global negligence when it comes to the difference between growing methods for ingestible and non-ingestible products (like what pesticides can be used in what amounts etc..), it's very often the case that industrial hemp is used in the medical and edible cannabis industries due to its lower amount of THC, generally under .2%, which makes it acceptable for most medicinal markets. It, of course, has hundreds of other industrial applications as well.
A draft bill from 2016 made the proposition of taking certain low-THC strains of cannabis off the dangerous drugs list in Israel. As of 2019 the law was passed and eight companies have been licensed to grow industrial hemp for export.
So, what makes Israel so far ahead?
Israel isn't the farthest ahead when it comes to cannabis legalization, not even close. Israel isn't even ahead when it comes to decent decriminalization and personal use policies. Israel isn't even ahead when it comes to being one of the biggest global providers of hemp, or in getting in line to do so. But where Israel takes the cake above any other country is in cannabis research.
A lot of the early cannabis research (and that done today) was done by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam. Mechoulam was the first to isolate THC way back in the 60s, when he and his team started looking at the chemistry of cannabinoids. In fact, for as much flack as THC gets for being a psychoactive compound, its many health benefits including help with pain, sleep, nausea and vomiting, anxiety, and so on, have been known since the 60s and 70s.
Mechoulam also became famous for his attention to, and observations of, the entourage effect – known generally in medicine as a synergistic effect – in which different compounds in the cannabis plant work together to create a more powerful effect than the component parts alone.
Plus, Mechoulam did work back in the 70s (and published in 1980), highlighting how cannabis helps with epilepsy, a huge finding that went ignored for over 30 years. To say that Mechoulam's groundbreaking research wasn't always taken seriously, or was met with blind eyes, is a massive understatement, and it says a lot for the desire to hold onto a status quo (for whatever reason), that his research was downplayed for so many decades.
He's not done yet!
At the ripe old age of 90, Mechoulam isn't done yet. He and his team synthesized a new cannabinoid: cannabidiolic acid methyl ester (HU 580). Really it's a stabilized version of the highly unstable acids that are precursors to the other cannabinoids. In testing, this new discovery has already been shown to be a powerful anti-anxiety medication, and nausea suppressor among other things. This acid is significantly stronger than the compounds it creates, and its applications are only just being investigated.
Israel creates an interesting story, and really is the birthplace of modern cannabis medicine. While the country is leaps and bounds ahead of most other countries in terms of research, and while Israel certainly isn't as strict as places like Japan, Iran, or France, it's still moving slowly in other ways. It took over 30 years for some of Mechoulam's research to be taken seriously. Israel was aware long before the rest of the world about the medicinal benefits of cannabis, including THC - the risk profile of which has been greatly exaggerated in the last century, and yet the laws are only now starting to update appropriately.
One thing is for sure though… when it gets to the point of drones raining down cannabis in public, it means the people are certainly ready for a change...and the more the people are ready for a change, the greater pressure on the government to make it happen.
Thanks for stopping by CBD TESTERS, your hub for all things cannabis-related. Stop by regularly and make sure to subscribe to the Medical Cannabis Weekly Newsletter to keep up-to-date on all the most interesting industry topics.
Sarah Friedman posted: " France and the EU have been fighting it out in court over import laws concerning a CBD case. If the EU wins it means a forced legalization of CBD edibles across the entire EU… But if France wins, could it be the beginning of the end for CBD? Before lo"
France and the EU have been fighting it out in court over import laws concerning a CBD case. If the EU wins it means a forced legalization of CBD edibles across the entire EU… But if France wins, could it be the beginning of the end for CBD?
Before looking into EU CBD laws, we need to shift our attention to the World Health Organization. One of the big cases in the world of legal cannabis has to do with an upcoming vote about cannabis scheduling based on recommendations put out by the WHO (World Health Organization). There are several recommendations that cover a variety of topics on the subject, a few of the main ones being: taking cannabis out of schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (substituting it instead with simply THC), and removing THC altogether from the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
It also recommends looking at individual cannabinoids, like CBD, separately from the rest of the plant, and not scheduling non-psychoactive cannabinoids the same as those that are psychoactive. Along with this it recommends allowing cannabis extracts with up to .2% THC to not be scheduled by either convention. This last one opens the door for easier trade between countries since it would set a legal international benchmark.
The recommendations were supposed to be voted on already, but due to different issues the vote has been put off a couple times, with a current date in December. During this time, member countries are implored to better understand the recommendations and all their implications before the vote.
Now, if the vote goes sideways in December, and the recommendations are rejected, then the old rules regarding cannabis apply. Cannabis is illegal, a schedule I drug according to the Single Convention, and CBD and all other cannabinoids are scheduled the same.
This would erase a lot of the progress that's been made in the gray area of the last few years, and essentially illegalize CBD. If that happens, what's going on between France and the EU won't matter at all. But if those recommendations go through…well there might be some very interesting CBD case laws coming out of the EU thanks to France and its super stringent policies about cannabis.'
This case didn't start out being about cross-border trading within the EU. It started out simply as a violation of French law. In 2014 Sébastien Béguerie and Antonin Cohen-Adad, the owners of Kanavape were arrested for selling a CBD product in France which was made in the Czech Republic and imported to France.
The product didn't break with standard EU law, as it had within .2% THC – max by EU standard, and was cultivated according to EU regulation. But the import went against French law which stipulates any amount of THC in a product makes it illegal, and that products can only be sourced from certain parts of the plant.
The two men were found guilty in France, and when they appealed their case in France, the judge kicked the case to the EU to see if France's restrictions went against EU law. Now, several years later, the case is being heard in Luxembourg by the highest court of the EU – the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), kind of like a Supreme Court, the decision of which will be binding all throughout the EU.
EU and France are fighting over import laws concerning CBD laws
The case, of course, is no longer about a French law being broken, but whether France can legally have that law as it goes up against EU law. As in, is France's ban on CBD oil (as none will have absolutely no THC) in contradiction to EU law. When it comes to CBD, no official rulings have been made yet, so this ruling will be the first concrete stance that the court has taken regarding CBD.
Some basic implications
The first and most basic implication of France winning is that the EU can't set a global standard for trade within the EU without running up against local laws. In a way it would create a bit of a divide, leave the door open for tons more lawsuits concerning the ability and legality of importing and exporting within the EU when different countries hold different laws. More particular to this case, it would mean that CBD can go on being completely illegal anywhere that local EU member state law allows.
The first and most basic implication of the EU winning is that it reinforces the EU as a central government with the ability to override a single country's laws. In this particular case it means that due to the inability of individual countries to set their own policies in contradiction to the EU, it forces governments that are in opposition legally to update their laws. To be more specific in this matter, it would force countries to update their drug policies, and for some of them to accept much more lenience than currently desired. Let's be honest, France doesn't want to change its laws, but it'll have to if the EU wins.
And so will Slovakia, for example, which is the only EU country that has an actual ban on CBD. It will be forced to legalize it. France doesn't technically have a ban on CBD, but it does have a full ban on THC, so any product that would have trace amounts is illegalized, and this rules out products like CBD oil which will always contain a small amount of THC. If the EU wins, every country in the EU would have to go by the stipulation of up to .2% THC in other products.
The problem with EU CBD laws
France had another issue with the import though. It wasn't just about THC, but that it was sourced from part of the hemp plant that France ruled illegal for production of CBD edibles – the leaves and flowers. By French law, the only parts of the hemp plant that can be used for ingestible products are the fibers and seeds. This, too, would be in contradiction to EU regulation, and should the EU win the case, a country like France could no longer stipulate which parts of the plant can be used in preparations, so long as EU standards are met.
Other implications?
It should be remembered that though this case is about cannabis, its also about the ability for EU regulation to be upheld between countries, and for the free movement of goods between member states. If the EU wins, it means individual regulations that countries have put in place that are more extreme than general EU regulation, could be nullified.
It means for any standardized stipulation that the EU makes concerning the movement of products between borders, every EU country will have to comply. In this way it's a very big ruling, not just in what it does for the CBD industry, but for all the thousands + more implications it will have down the line.
The final ruling has not been given, but a preliminary ruling was. The Court of Justice's advocate general Evgeni Tanchev stated in his analysis that France's laws aren't appropriate, or proportionate to account for public health matters. In fact, one of the only ways that France can legally go up against EU law of this nature is to prove a threat to public health, and France as of yet has not shown CBD to be dangerous. While the general expectation is that this opinion will be upheld by the CJEU, the final decision won't be out until later this year.
Conclusion
The funny thing about this case is that it might not matter at all. If WHO's recommendations are voted down, the case of France vs the EU is null and void as CBD would undergo blanket illegalization worldwide. It is only if the recommendations are taken that this case has any value. So, it's not just one story to follow for the outcome of this case, but two. How will WHO recommendations be voted on, and how will the CJEU rule the case of France vs the EU. We'll find it all out at the end of this year.
Thanks for stopping by CBD TESTERS, your hub for all things cannabis-related. Stop by regularly and make sure to subscribe to the Medical Cannabis Weekly Newsletter to keep up-to-date on all the most interesting industry topics.
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