How in Israel earn on cannabis flowers

The global market for medical marijuana is growing steadily, and Israel has already become a leader in scientific research. 

Marijuana Flower

On April 20, an employee of the Tel Aviv office of the international Internet company, Yoni B., went straight from work in the morning, but to the Knesset building, so that he and a few mates could smoke a cigarette there. Recently, marijuana Yoni smokes regularly: the doctor prescribed - for insomnia. He usually does it, however, less demonstratively.

But on the International Day of Marijuana, Yoni is involved in a protest. Gathered people believe that Israel should allow cannabis not only for medical purposes.

Medical marijuana in the country has been legalized since the early 1990s — then the first experiments in separate hospitals began. Officially, they began to use it in 1996, which makes the local cannabis medical program one of the oldest in the world. 

But the first step was taken back in the 1960s by the Israeli chemist Rafael Meshulam, who was able to isolate cannabinoid THC - one of the active substances of this plant. Then he and his colleagues identified three more cannabinoids and studied in detail their effects.

Thanks to the work of Meshulam, Israel has become a pioneer in the use of cannabis for the treatment of various diseases and pain relief.

Before the full legalization of cannabis in this country, now there is not much time left. Now for the use of non-prescription citizens may face a fine - but last year, according to official statistics, a little more than three thousand of such fines were issued, half of the cases of using marijuana without a prescription were closed.

According to the UN, 27% of the population of Israel use cannabis. This is the second place in the world, ahead of only Papua New Guinea with 30% of the population.

Regardless of whether cannabis is legalized in Israel completely or not, local business hopes to make good money on medical marijuana.

Two and a half years ago Aviha Tamir fell out of life for several days every month: he suffered from severe migraines, and sometimes his head ached so that he simply could not work. "No painkillers that the doctor prescribed for me did not help, and I missed a few days at work every month because of the pain," he recalls.

This continued until the doctor suggested he try cannabis as a medicine for migraine.

Cannabis Help

Avihu agreed, although he had not even smoked tobacco before. Like many Israeli patients, he came to the instruction of the nurse, who showed him how to apply a new medicine.

Avikha Tamir was shocked - he didn’t come to the party of teenagers, but to be healed! But the new tool helped him, so Avihu became interested in the problem and found that cannabis throughout the world, from Canada to Australia, was given to patients in Flower (inflorescences of female plants).

At that time, Aviha had been in business for several years, and so pretty soon, simple interest grew into a medical startup Kanabo Research. He developed a vaporizer and containers with recycled cannabis oil.

There are several options - for relieving pain, insomnia, and nervous disorders. Available application which shows the received dose on the phone and sends the information to the doctor.

While the first generation of vaporizers is being tested at a local hospital, Tamira is already working on the next device, which allows you to accurately measure the dose of 2 mg with each tightening. (Usually, doctors begin with this dosage and gradually increase the dose by the same 2 mg.).

There are already more than 500 such startups in Israel. But there are only eight farmers who supply raw materials. One of them, Gehry Colin, head of the Teva Adir farm, has been growing cannabis since 2007 for 1,500 patients. "Licenses are issued by the Ministry of Health, and their main criterion is the ability to ensure product safety, its quality and growing experience",

He explains. His farm, for example, is patrolled 24 hours a day by armed guards, and surveillance cameras are installed around the perimeter of the territory with greenhouses. Without this, the license does not get.

The varieties of medical marijuana are their own - you need a more or less stable content of certain cannabinoids, and preferably not those followed by tourists to Amsterdam. Colin says he buys seeds in the United States, the Netherlands and Spain, but selection is also conducted in Israel. Not yet able to withdraw a variety that raw would not cause side effects, eliminating pain.

If, until recently, vegetables and greens were considered the most profitable in Israeli agriculture, now it is undoubtedly cannabis, says Gehry Colin.

According to Colin, now he is paid 370 shekels for each patient served, regardless of the mass of raw materials that may be needed for the year - at least 30, even 150 grams. Considering that cannabis is actually a potential weed in a hot climate, the cost of growing it comes down to the cost of water, greenhouses and seeds.

In the near future, the local Ministry of Health will issue another 26 licenses, but since all newcomers need experience, they will somehow be connected with eight pioneers. If now eight farms provide raw materials to more than 20 thousand patients within the country, then with the advent of new industries, export will be possible.

Cannabis United States

Laws to allow shipments to Australia and Canada are already being prepared.

Moreover, in Germany in the near future they are going to issue licenses to marijuana producers, and there, too, a prerequisite is experience, therefore all applications are from Israeli companies. Local businessmen say they helped them to write the laws of Germany. As in South Africa,
where are now only going to legalize medical marijuana. In the US, the same system - the right to grow in those states where marijuana is legalized, is obtained only by a few manufacturers.

After three years, the market volume of medical marijuana in monetary terms will exceed $ 20 billion. This is an increase of almost 700% since 2016. By some estimates, by 2025 the legal cannabis market will reach $ 50 billion. So far, the main producer (and consumer) of this product is the United States (almost 90% of the market).

According to the non-governmental organization ProCon, in 2016, 1.246 million patients in the United States received prescriptions for cannabis use.

However, the center of startups and research, as well as the production of drugs and raw materials remains Israel. For treatment with substances from cannabis, autism, epilepsy and psoriasis and other diseases, there are 120 projects now underway, more than in any other country.

Such a concentration naturally attracts investment.

This year, only US companies will invest more than $ 100 million in various Israeli research and development projects, according to iCAN, a private cannabis research center in Israel. They expect that in 2018-2019, investments will reach $ 1 billion.

But while the main direction of cannabis use in medicine is pain relief. All businessmen in this field remind of a well-known problem with an overdose of opioid painkillers in the US - only in 2015, more than 20 thousand people died from them. In Israel, it is opioids that are considered dangerous,
and cannabis is treated liberally - several hundred children receive prescription drugs from it.

For example, a startup Cannabliss, with the approval of the local Ministry of Health, produces special brownies for children. "Cannabis does not cause physical dependence (there is a social one - in 9% of cases, according to some data) and is not as toxic as opioid analgesics, of which in 2014, 28 thousand people died. Cannabis has no deaths registered.

The only restriction is that it does not help with some chronic pains, ”says Sheba Nachshon Knoller, head of the spinal surgery department of the hospital.