Israel plans to become the world's 3rd biggest cannabis exporter.

Israel launches plan to become the world's third biggest exporter of medicinal cannabis - enough to supply the ENTIRE US and earn $1.1bn a year

The global market is set to reach $33 billion in the next seven years
Breath of Life Pharma (BOL) has built a one-million-square-foot facility
It will produce 80 tons of medical cannabis per year, said CEO Dr Tamir Gedo
Comes after the Israeli government gave the go-ahead to exports of the drug

Burgeoning research has linked cannaboids with helping diabetes, cancer, heart disease, autism, fracture healing and inflammatory bowel disease to name a few.


Israel is set to become the world’s third biggest exporter of medical cannabis, as the global market is set to reach $33 billion in the next seven years.

Its government has estimated sales abroad would rake in $1.1 billion a year for the Middle Eastern country.
Bio-tech companies based there are preparing to expand production of the drug to meet rising global consumer demand.
One is Breath of Life Pharma (BOL), which is about to open the world's largest medical marijuana grow-house and research centre in central Israel.

The one-million-square-foot facility will allow the firm to store enough medical cannabis to supply the entire US, according to its chief executive Dr Tamir Gedo.
He estimates that BOL will produce 80 tons – more than 175,000 pounds – per year, according to a news statement on its website.

It comes after the Israel's government gave the go-ahead in February to legislation permitting export of the drug.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel has previously said that by next year the country will join the Netherlands and Canada as global cannabis suppliers.
BOL is not alone in its ambitions – it is one of eight licensed firms seeking to position Israel as a global hub for medical cannabis research.

Global leader in research

Israel was among the first countries to legalise medical marijuana, although it remains illegal for recreational use.
It is one of just three, along with Canada and the Netherlands, to have a government-sponsored cannabis program. Israel is already a global leader in research and development into the drug for medical use.

The Ministry of Health has approved 150 research proposals, 35 of them clinical trials. More than 50 US companies are doing medical marijuana research in the country.

Trials are currently underway at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center to test the effects of cannabinoids on 120 autistic children and young adults, the first of its kind worldwide.

Earlier this month, it was announced Hebrew University will investigate the benefits of non-psychoactive cannabis components for treating asthma and other respiratory conditions.

There are about 140 cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, with THC (the psychoactive component) and CBD, which has anti-inflammatory properties, of most interest to researchers.

CBD is the focus of much of Israel’s flourishing medical cannabis research on diabetes, heart disease, autism, fracture healing and inflammatory bowel disease.

The Israelis have also been investigating the drug's ability to treat epilepsy, post-traumatic stress, cancer tumours, the side effects of chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and Tourette's syndrome, among others.

'The Ministry of Health in Israel has channelled a lot of energy here in order to examine all the evidence based medicine, and is willing to take that approach,' Dr Gedo told The Times of India.
'Other ministries of health around the world are hesitant.'

WHAT IS THC AND CBD?

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is best known for being the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

It is this ingredient that gets you high.

Unlike THC, cannabidiol (CBD) is non-psychoactive. In other words, it can’t get you high.

THC has also been linked to anxiety and mental health problems.

Isolated, CBD has the opposite effect, often calming people down, hence what makes it so appealing as a medicine.

Both have drawn the attention of the medical community but it is CBD that has attracted most.

One of a few facilities worldwide
BOL's new centre has a 35,000-square-foot plant, an 8,000-square-foot storage room, 30,000 square feet of grow rooms and labs, and a million square feet of cultivation fields.

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.

Like newborns in an incubator, hundreds of unique strains of plants will be monitored around the clock in computer-controlled, camera-patrolled, password-secured greenhouses.
Here the firm is able to break down the cannabis plant to extract different chemical compounds, called cannabinoids, for use in research and medicine.

There are about 140 of these, the most well-known ingredients are cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
There are few facilities that can carry out the extraction process worldwide, Dr Gedo said, and most can only do it on a small scale.

Legislation

Medical marijuana, while still controversial, has garnered increasing support in the medical community. But biotechs will be held back from fully capitalising on the global demand, given that the drug is still illegal in most countries.
There are currently just 29 that recognise some form of medical cannabis.

In the US, the use, possession, sale, cultivation, and transportation of marijuana is illegal under federal law. However 29 states, have legalised some form of medical use and allow doctors to prescribe the drug to patients.

BOL plans to apply for 'investigative new drug' status from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) next year. Such approval would open up a huge market.

However, earlier this month, the FDA cracked down on marijuana products marketed as cancer cure.
The agency has sent a letter to four companies, slamming their claims that patients can treat life-threatening tumours – and even prevent Alzheimer's – by using cannabis oils and creams.

In the UK, cannabis is still illegal in the UK, but its drug's watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), last year ruled CBD should be classed as medicine.

It had looked at the ingredient because a number of manufacturing companies had been making 'overt medicinal claims' about products.
Now products used for medical purposes that contain CBD must be licensed before they can legally be supplied in the UK.

Meanwhile, medical marijuana producers and pharma companies are attempting to stay ahead of the game and make their mark overseas by scrambling to form collaborations and lobbying governments.

CANNABINOIDS CAN KILL TUMOURS IN LEUKEMIA

A compound in cannabis is 'significantly' effective in destroying cancerous tumours in leukaemia, research in June suggested.

A study found that combining existing chemotherapy treatments with cannabinoids – the active chemicals in cannabis – had better results than chemotherapy alone.

The findings suggest that a lower dose of chemotherapy can be used on patients, minimising side effects of the treatment, say researchers.

Furthermore, scientists discovered that order the treatment was administered was crucial - using cannabinoids after chemotherapy resulted in a greater death of the blood cancer cells.

Lead author of the study, Dr Wai Liu, from St George's, University of London, said: 'We have shown for the first time that the order in which cannabinoids and chemotherapy are used is crucial in determining the overall effectiveness of this treatment.'

Authorities are 'too slow'

However, drug firms hoping to break into markets say cautious authorities in the US and Britain are too slow to act.
Israel-based pharma company iCAN held CannaTechUK, the UK's first ever cannabis medical conference, in London last month, in a bid spark further interest and debate around the issue.

Founder Saul Kaye told Mail Online: 'Much of the US and especially the UK are woefully behind the curve in helping patients who could greatly benefit from using cannabis based products for numerous ailments such seizure disorders, MS, PTSD, chronic pain, Parkinson’s, crohn’s disease, and to mitigate the effects of nausea from chemotherapy.

'Israel is a place where the science of cannabis is forward looking not looked down upon.

'Israel’s Ministry of Health has approved well over 100 research proposals and has tens of clinical trials now happening.

'More than 50 US companies are doing medical cannabis research in Israel because they simply can’t do them in the US but they do not want to miss out in the incredible financial opportunities that await in this burgeoning industry.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5066395/Israel-3rd-biggest-exporter-medical-cannabis.html

I had free access to condo in the most northern part if Israel as well as a home in TelAviv + a jeep to use. One of these days........

the mediterrenean climate is ideal for outdoor cultivation. but why limit it to Israel, cannabis outsourcing should be limited, and its production localized, in order to create jobs along the north coast of the African continent. superior quality of the product can be ensured because the flowers dont have to be stored and shipped, where it is more difficult to control temperature and humidity. this should be an incentive for the north african states to implicate reforms in their cannabis laws.

AV

Ooh, Apartheid Kush?

Pass.

Aurora has a similarly sized operation in Edmonton at a fraction of the distance, with no political connotations.

Oops sorry I just posted a duplication

Yup they are way ahead. My geneticist is in Tel Aviv. Hoping to attend Cannatech next year.

I chuckled at the implications in consideration of the alleged Lebanese and Moroccan histories of trading stamps between hashish producers, often with a star and moon or other motif on the bags or bricks.

I guess any bricks of 'shish from Israel would carry the tell-tale Star of David??

Then folks could better knowingly participate in the whole economic boycott and political pressure thing, by choosing Bekaa Valley produce over Israeli... Or vice versa..

Or I'll just smoke my own, buy CBD oil from my friend whose 'good works' benefit retired sled dog rescues, and abstain from the whole invasion of the giant mega-corps and attached implications of/for cannabis gone mainstream corporate.

Yeah, that...

American tax dollars at work in Israel......Hmmm makes you wonder eh?

Maybe one of the underlying reason for US federal law on cannabis staying at schedule one, is because of Israeli designs on becoming the worlds biggest cannabis producer?

*Israel receives billions of dollars in US 'Aid'...

** The UK Aid cabinet minister Preti Patel just got fired because of underhand meetings with Israeli officials. Apparently she was negotiating some sort of UK aid deal for Israel from the UK's annual 18 billion sterling aid budget.

supplying the whole US market?
thats a bit greedy isn't it? leave some market for everyone else for fucks sake!

No thank You

Storm Shadow said:

No thank You

Click to expand...

I'll second that!!!

I mean why does the UK and the USA need to be giving Israel any aid at all?

The UK already allowed the formation of Israel in 1917....virtually giving them the country.

1917
The Balfour Declaration

On November 2, 1917, Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour writes a letter to Britain’s most illustrious Jewish citizen, Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, expressing the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Britain’s public acknowledgement and support of the Zionist movement emerged from its growing concern surrounding the direction of the First World War. By mid-1917, Britain and France were mired in a virtual stalemate with Germany on the Western Front, while efforts to defeat Turkey on the Gallipoli Peninsula had failed spectacularly. On the Eastern Front, the fate of one Ally, Russia, was uncertain: revolution in March had toppled Czar Nicholas II, and the provisional government was struggling against widespread opposition to maintain the country’s disintegrating war effort against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although the United States had just entered the war on the Allied side, a sizeable infusion of American troops was not scheduled to arrive on the continent until the following year.

Against this backdrop, the government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George—elected in December 1916—made the decision to publicly support Zionism, a movement led in Britain by Chaim Weizmann, a Russian Jewish chemist who had settled in Manchester. The motives behind this decision were various: aside from a genuine belief in the righteousness of the Zionist cause, held by Lloyd George among others, Britain’s leaders hoped that a formal declaration in favor of Zionism would help gain Jewish support for the Allies in neutral countries, in the United States and especially in Russia, where the powerfully anti-Semitic czarist government had just been overthrown with the help of Russia’s significant Jewish population. Finally, despite Britain’s earlier agreement with France dividing influence in the region after the presumed defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Lloyd George had come to see British dominance in Palestine—a land bridge between the crucial territories of India and Egypt—as an essential post-war goal. The establishment of a Zionist state there—under British protection—would accomplish this, while seemingly following the stated Allied aim of self-determination for smaller nations.

Over the course of 1917, a vigorous anti-Zionist movement within Parliament held up the progress of the planned declaration. Led by Edwin Montagu, secretary of state for India and one of the first Jews to serve in the cabinet, the anti-Zionists feared that British-sponsored Zionism would threaten the status of Jews who had settled in various European and American cities and also encourage anti-Semitic violence in the countries battling Britain in the war, especially within the Ottoman Empire. This opposition was overruled, however, and after soliciting—with varying degrees of success—the approval of France, the United States and Italy (including the Vatican) Lloyd George’s government went ahead with its plan.

On November 2, Balfour sent a letter to Lord Rothschild, a prominent Zionist and a friend of Chaim Weizmann, stating that: “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” By the time the statement was published in British and international newspapers one week later, one of its major objectives had been rendered obsolete: Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks had gained power in Russia, and one of their first actions was to call for an immediate armistice. Russia was out of the war, and no amount of persuasion from Zionist Jews—who, despite Britain’s belief to the contrary, had relatively little influence in the country to begin with—could reverse the outcome.

Nonetheless, the influence of the Balfour Declaration on the course of post-war events was immediate: According to the “mandate” system created by the Versailles Treaty of 1919, Britain was entrusted with the temporary administration of Palestine, with the understanding that it would work on behalf of both its Jewish and Arab inhabitants. Many Arabs, in Palestine and elsewhere, were angered by their failure to receive the nationhood and self-government they had been led to expect in return for their participation in the war against Turkey. In the years after the war, the Jewish population in Palestine increased dramatically, along with the instances of Jewish-Arab violence. The area’s instability led Britain to delay making a decision on Palestine’s future. In the aftermath of World War II and the terrors of the Holocaust, however, growing international support for Zionism led to the official declaration in 1948 of the State of Israel.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-balfour-declaration

Maybe this time around, the U.S. can engage in an ABOVE BOARD drugs-for-arms arrangement; we keep sending Netty fighter jets and small arms, as well as various missiles, and they send us ......... some hash and some weed....

Nah.. Never mind. Still a bad idea. Still have lots of weed and hash.. and conscience..

Now, if they were sending generous beach front lots on a white sand beach, complete with gorgeous, partially-clad, sun-bathing, early-middle-aged vixens, we might have something to talk about...

Nope, my wife says 'no'....

early middle-aged-vixens?.....ROTFLMAO!


* don't you mean MATURE MILFS?

Gypsy Nirvana said:

early middle-aged-vixens?.....ROTFLMAO!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I know.. It's a disability brought on by aging..

The older I get, the less intrigued by the 19 to 25 year-old crowd I become, and the more attractive the early 30s to mid-40s
women look.

These days, the younger women look more like high-school students to me, and there's a major psychological barrier there that's -anything- but erotic.

And in my mind's ear, I keep hearing them speaking in a Valley Girl dialect... with lots of 'like' and 'reeeeeally' and 'ya' know,' scattered throughout conversations that I can't seem to make heads or tails of.

Yes.. Mature MILFs. That's what I meant...

Ah yes Pritti pandering for British aid to help the poor malnourished IDF and settlers in the Golan Heights (a land grab unrecognized by many, including the UK.

gaiusmarius said:

supplying the whole US market?
thats a bit greedy isn't it? leave some market for everyone else for fucks sake!

Click to expand...

That's another interesting point.

Last I heard America has become an exporter in recent years.

Pretty much the worst thing about medical marijuana. Israel and GW/Bayer have been working hard for years to dominate the market.

The worst thing that can ever happen to weed is if they make it a Schedule 2 or even 3.

Of course the black market will be fine I have plenty of seeds to trade and they can't get all the current breeders anyway.