Israel's Agriculture Ministry has classified medical cannabis growing as an official farming sector. As a result, 20 or so farmers currently growing medical cannabis will now qualify for government aid, grants, water quotas, and training in crop growing.

In a separate but simultaneous move, the Ministry also set aside funding for biochemical studies to improve medical marijuana growing practices. Israel continues to be a pioneer in the scientific research of cannabis, as well as water-saving hydroponic growing techniques for it and other crops.

Official Recognition Brings Agriculture Rights

Recognition by the Agricultural Ministry as an official agricultural sector holds certain additional rights that were not previously available to cannabis growers. Most importantly, those rights include water quota allocations. The limitations on available water require careful management and this recognition provides some guarantees. Water management policies in the region are controversial, to say the least.

Other rights as an official agriculture sector include government grants and assistance to aid in research to improve growing techniques. The government allotted NIS 8 million (~USD$2.3 million) toward 13 specific projects proposed among the 20 existing medical cannabis growers. The cannabis sector will also benefit from Israel's general expertise in water-saving hydroponic growing techniques, also assisted by federal research funds.

Export Revenue Forecasts

The Israeli government has rosy projections for the profitability of cannabis farming in the global market. At a price of 5 shekels (~USD$1.25) per gram, the ministry expects Israel's cannabis farming sector to generate between NIS 1 billion and 4 billion per year (~USD$280 million to $1.1 billion) in export revenue.

Israel has 23,000 medical marijuana patients domestically, but the country's contribution to medical marijuana research has far outsized the specific needs of its own citizens. Medical cannabis suppliers in Israel have already created inroads to medical markets in the U.S. through a Massachusetts holding company. More importantly, Israeli suppliers have connections to Canadian suppliers who through their own program of federal legalization have been working to supply the growing European markets for medical cannabis.

Medical Recognition Follows Recreational Decriminalization

While medical marijuana has been legal in Israel since the early 90s, this official recognition as a farming sector is something new. Still, Israeli cannabis farmers have long been at the forefront of scientific research of cannabis. For example, Israeli researchers were the first to isolate THC as a psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, back in 1966.

Israeli research continues to move forward with serious examinations of the effects of cannabis treatment on autism, especially in children. Their testing has identified that the human endocannabinoid system plays a role in autism, and has isolated which cannabinoid receptors in the brain are affected. These are promising steps toward identifying how and why some autism patients are seeing great benefits from medical cannabis, and hoepfully to help even more patients.

Highlights Importance of Federal Legalization

In more recent times, federal legalization in Israel streamlines the ability of scientists to pursue cannabis research, especially as compared to the difficulties that U.S. researchers face. Dr. Alan Shackelford was one of the first doctors to recommend the CBD-dominant strain Charlotte's Web as a treatment for epileptic seizures in children, as featured on CNN. His decision to relocate to Israel specifically to be able to pursue medical cannabis research is a notable example of the brain drain that restrictive policies of prohibition can have.

While the rest of the world starts to realize the benefits of legitimate international trade between those nations with federal recognition of legal cannabis, the U.S. remains in the dark ages of prohibition. Marijuana arrests in the U.S. continue to rise, even as the number of states legalizing it within their own borders increases.

According to the FBI, arrests for marijuana offenses in the U.S. last year exceeded arrests for all violent crimes combined. Israel decriminalized public consumption of cannabis in March 2017.