The U.S. may be the largest medical cannabis market in the world with sales exceeding $65 billion in 2014 and projections for 2015 surpassing that, but Israel is at the heart of much of the world’s leading medical cannabis research. After all, the Startup Nation has been at it since the 1960s.

The United States Healthcare System has been criticized for decades now by both foreign and domestic media outlets. US healthcare costs more, offers less and operates more slowly than most, if not all, countries of comparison. A new, groundbreaking decision out of Israel further thrusts America into the subcategories of global health leadership.

“The Scientist” is a documentary that traces the story of Nobel prize nominee Dr Mechoulam from his early days......as a child of the Holocaust in Bulgaria, through his immigration to Israel, and his career as the chief investigator into the chemistry and biology of the world’s most misunderstood plant. Dr. Mechoulam ascertained that THC interacts with the largest receptor system in the human body, the endocannabinoid system (ECS). 
For further information please visit:
http://mechoulamthescientist.com/

The documentary is predominantly in English with hebrew subtitles, though it starts in Spanish

Deputy health minister says medical marijuana will be prescribed and supervised like medications classified as narcotic

Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman announced Monday that pharmacies will be stocked with medical marijuana to ease the often arduous bureaucratic process faced by patients prescribed the drug.

During an address to the Knesset Committee on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Litzman said the current system of dispensing medical marijuana to patients was unbalanced.

Deputy Minister of Health Yakov Litzman said the drug will be available in pharmacies.

Deputy Minister of Health Yakov Litzman today announced that medical cannabis will be available in pharmacies in Israel, and that more doctors would be allowed to prescribe it.

"There are already pharmacies that dispense all sorts of other drugs, such as morphine. There is order with that, and there will be order with this," Litzman said. "There will be registration, and we'll supervise it, but it will be according to a standard, like a drug. Right now, we're in a case at the High Court of Justice because of the growers, and we'll issue a tender for the growers. I hope we get approval from the High Court of Justice."

Israel has been a shining example of how to deal with cannabis. From the ground breaking scientific research lead by Raphael Mechoulam to the latest news that cannabis will be widely available in all pharmacies. There has been a real problem of patients getting access to the medicinal plant so today’s announcementoutlining a clear path for full introduction into Israeli patient care will bring some much needed relief.

Israelis soon will be able to take a doctor’s prescription for marijuana to the local pharmacy, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman said Monday.

He noted that pharmacies issue prescriptions for other drugs that are considered narcotics and that procedures are well-supervised. A case in point is Ritalin. A person wanting to fill a prescription for the drug, which when ground up and sniffed can be extremely dangerous, has to wait at the counter until the pharmacist opens the safe.

“I will fight an aggressive war not to allow this to get out of control,” said Litzman, who in effect is the Health Minster, a title he does not accept because the Hareidi Yehadut Torah (United Torah Judaism) party does not want to be part of a “Zionist” Cabinet.

Cannabis use among teens has risen in recent years, according to a new survey done by the Israeli branch of the international health organization, Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC).

The survey, which sampled 14,000 pupils in grades six, eight, 10, 11, and 12, found that parallel to the rise in the use of cannabis was a decrease in the number of pupils who thought the drug was dangerous.

In 2011, 15 percent of 15-18 year olds reported thinking there was no danger in using cannabis, while in the recent 2014 survey the number jumped to 24% of the same age group.

The rates among boys was higher than girls, jumping from 18.8% thinking there was no danger in using cannabis in 2011, up to 36.2% in 2014.

Scientists in Israel have discovered that certain chemicals in cannabis help broken bones mend faster. This chemical can possibly slow down or avert the onset of osteoporosis. How do we treat this constant accumulation of evidence in support of medicinal use of marijuana?

Cannabis—marijuana, hashish—was used as a go-to medical remedy by societies around the world for centuries. But the therapeutic use of marijuana was banned in most countries in the 1930s and '40s due to a growing awareness of the dangers of addiction. The significant medical benefits of marijuana in alleviating symptoms of such diseases as Parkinson's, cancer, and multiple sclerosis have only recently been reinvestigated.