Joint undercover operation busts nationwide cannabis ring.

An anesthesiologist took bribes to write false recommendations for medical cannabis for dozens of people, police said Monday, as he and with dozens of other suspects were arrested.

The chief suspect, Dr. Avraham Dotan, is a senior anesthesiologist at Wolfson Hospital in Holon. The 64-year-old doctor’s main alleged accomplice, 36-yearold Moshav Ametz resident Roi Habera, is accused of bringing him patients and brokering the deals.

Police said in court that they had already brought in 40 suspects for questioning on Monday, and that they plan to question as many as 130 people suspected of wrongfully receiving recommendations or of knowing information pertinent to the case.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli doctor was arrested on suspicion that he took bribes to write recommendations for patients to receive medical marijuana.

The 64-year-old anesthesiologist manages a department dealing with patient pain at a hospital in central Israel, according to police.

An alleged accomplice also was arrested and accused of bringing in the “patients” and cutting the deals. Ten other alleged accomplices also were arrested, according to police.

Patients must obtain a doctor’s recommendation to receive medical cannabis, which is then approved by the Health Ministry.

Last year, six of the 10 companies on Forbes’s Top 10 Health Tech Changing the World were Israeli.

The country, already known as an incubator of high-technology businesses, is a strong player in a growing global medical devices market, which is expected to grow by billions of dollars in the next few years, according to market research companies.

Investment in startup tech companies in Israel has grown to more than $5-billion (U.S.) in 2015, according to Jon Medved, Jerusalem-based founder and chief executive officer of OurCrowd, an equity-crowdfunding group for those investing in Israeli and global startups.

Perth, Nov 2, 2015 AEST (ABN Newswire) - MMJ PhytoTech Limited (ASX:MMJ) ("MMJ" or the "Company") today announces its activities report for the quarter ended 30 September 2015. 

Highlights:

- PhytoTech Medical and MMJ Bioscience merger successfully closed in late July, strategically positioning the Company as a vertically-integrated, Medical Cannabis ("MC") company with operations across the entire MC value chain and in key MC markets

According to a recent story on TechCrunch.com, Israel’s recent work to decriminalize marijuana could result in the nation becoming a worldwide cannabis superpower.

Israel has lately built a reputation for fostering innovative tech startups, as well as its advancements in agriculture and security. However, a recent push to decriminalize marijuana and to turn the drug into a medical export is making news.

As it stands now, Israel is already a trailblazer when it comes to clinical research on cannabis. This has allowed growers in Israel to grow new strains of the drug, and some believe there are now medical-grade products ready for the market.

Israel has been a world leader in medical cannabis research for over 40 years, in large part thanks to the extraordinary research of professor Raphael Mechoulamover decades at the Weizmann Institute and the Hebrew University.

Reporting from a 5 day fact finding mission in the Netherlands exploring the medical cannabis program and the players in the industry, together with Saul Kaye, our CEO and Jason Ryker, our CFO/COO.

Since we announced our partnership with Israel’s Cannabis Medical Unit and our subsequent postponement of the CannaTech Summit until March, we find ourselves with the time opportunity to investigate interesting markets and build new international relationships.

Were it not for one man’s efforts, the current cannabis landscape would look more like moonscape. There would be no conversations/blogs on cannabis as a curative medicine, there would be very little known pharmacology; certainly there would be much less clinical information regarding the world’s most captivating herb. That man is Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, professor of medicinal chemistry and Natural Products at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He is aptly referred to as the “Father of Cannabis Research.”

Any way you look at it, dagga is medicine. Even if you smoke it just to get “high”, the South African weed won’t just alter your consciousness.

It has a host of other powerful pharmacologic effects on body and mind, which make it medicine by definition.

Depending on which side of the legalisation or criminalisation fence you sit on, you’ll see those effects in a good or bad light.

“The dagga couple”, as the media have dubbed activists Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clark, sit on the side of the fence bathed in the glow of a good light. They are part of an influential legalisation campaign in South Africa that has spread faster than the weed grows, and now includes medical doctors, psychologists, lawyers, and other interested parties.

On a visit to strengthen economic ties, Hickenlooper goes out of his way to express solidarity for Israelis during terror wave.

Israel could be a key partner in the recreational marijuana revolution Colorado is leading and benefit from the huge revenues the industry is bringing in, said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who headed a visiting business delegation from his state over the past week.

“We are reaching out. You guys have some of the top resources in the world on some of these effects, and we have resource money now, so we are looking for partners,” Hickenlooper told The Jerusalem Post in Tel Aviv on Monday night, at the tail end of the delegation’s visit.