Israel Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino is convening a team to examine possible changes to the police’s approach regarding marijuana users.

This week we will be exploring the status of marijuana within the worlds major religions. We will look at whether usage is condoned or condemned. We begin with Islam, a close second to Christianity as the most popular religion globally.

Islam is the doctrine of the Muslim faith. Like Christianity, it's a monotheistic faith which finds its roots in the Middle East. Islam was revealed to the world by The Prophet Muhammed, sometimes referred to as the Prophet of Allah (the Islamic word for God). The holy text of the Muslim people is called the Quran which is believed to be the word of Allah, dictated verbatim by Muhammad; The Quran is sacred scripture and is followed with dogmatic orthodoxy by the Muslim people. 

The owner of a pizzeria in Israel has been arrested for lacing a pizza ordered by two policemen with “Mr. Nice Guy,” a synthetic marijuana. Both men became ill and were hospitalized following their meal.

"I knew the pizza was for the cops, but the guy I spoke with sounded cool on the phone and told me to put whatever I wanted on it," the owner of the Holon pizzeria told police, as reported by Walla website. "So, instead of oregano, I sprinkled Nice Guy."

After eating the pizza, the two men were taken to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital with symptoms of vomiting, body tremors and dizziness. Tests revealed they had ingested the drug.

The use of marijuana for medical purposes is now legal in 23 states and, as of this writing, 9 states have pending legislation or ballot measures to legalize medical marijuana.1 Estimates are that between 85 and 95 percent of Americans are in favor of medical cannabis, and nearly 60 percent support complete legalization of marijuana.

As the once-vilified drug becomes more accepted, researchers around the world are trying to understand how it works and how it might fight disease.

There’s nothing new about cannabis, of course. It’s been around humankind pretty much forever.

In Siberia charred seeds have been found inside burial mounds dating back to 3000 B.C. The Chinese were using cannabis as a medicine thousands of years ago. Marijuana is deeply American too—as American as George Washington, who grew hemp at Mount Vernon. For most of the country’s history, cannabis was legal, commonly found in tinctures and extracts.

The Israeli government and police should reexamine their policies on the use of cannabis and study how other countries are dealing with the matter, National Police Chief Yohanan Danino said Wednesday.

“I think the time has come for the Israel police, together with the state, to re-examine their stance on Cannabis. I think we must sit and study what’s happening around the world [with Cannabis].”

Speaking to high school students in Beit Shemesh Wednesday, Danino also said he is aware of the fact that Cannabis “has become an issue that is much more a part of the public debate than it was in the past and more citizens are asking that the use of Cannabis be legalized”.

After appeal by parents of kids suffering from epilepsy, MK Litzman calls to add cannabis remedies to universal health care package

Ultra-Orthodox MK Yaakov Litzman, who’s set to take over the Health Ministry in the new government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, may pave the way for state-subsidized medicinal marijuana to be covered by national health care.

The United Torah Judaism party leader addressed the issue after parents of dozens of children suffering from severe cases of epilepsy turned to him for assistance.

But where pharmaceutical drugs failed, the parents said cannabis oil was more effective.The parents said medications currently included in the state-subsidized health care package inadequately treats their severe seizures.

The made-in-Israel Syqe device may help make the use of medical marijuana widespread

It’s been called the breakthrough the medical marijuana industry has been waiting for, a technology that will bring widespread use of cannabis for pain relief to hospitals all over the world.

But most people who have heard of the Syqe Inhaler, a medical inhaler that provides just the right dose for patients, don’t know that it was developed in Israel, and they also don’t know that Israeli-US 3D printing tech firm Stratasys has been essential to the development of the project.

MONTREAL — The day may soon come when those prescribed medical marijuana will not have to roll and smoke a joint to obtain its benefits. 

A palm-sized inhaler has been developed by Israeli entrepreneur Perry Davidson that delivers a metered dose of marijuana’s medicinal components. He says this method is more effective clinically and eliminates the high associated with cigarette inhaling.

Davidson, founder and CEO of the startup Syqe Medical, told participants at a daylong conference April 30 on Israel’s booming high-tech sector, that the device is the first of its kind in the world.