Doctor took bribes to write medical cannabis recommendations for dozens of patients, police say

Suspect would allegedly receive around NIS 10,000 per recommendation.

Cannabis [Illustrative]. (photo credit:INIMAGE)

An anesthesiologist took bribes to write recommendations for medical cannabis for dozens of patients, police said Monday morning, as the doctor and one of his accomplices were arrested on suspicion of fraud and bribery.

The doctor is a resident of Tel Aviv and the manager of a department at a hospital in central Israel, where he deals with patients suffering from pain. His accomplice, a 36-year-old resident of a moshav in the Emek Hefer, is accused of bringing him patients and brokering the deals. Police said they have questioned and detained a series of other suspects in the case, though most were already released.

Central District spokesman Ami Ben-David said police suspect the doctor and his accomplice ran a network of associates that located potential patients across Israel and guided him to his office to receive recommendations which would then be sent to the Health Ministry for approval.

Central District police said the arrests were made following months of undercover investigation in collaboration with the Tax Authorities and the Health Ministry.

Ben-David said that the doctor would receive around NIS 10,000 per recommendation and that so far police know of a few dozen patients, but suspect there could be many more they do not know about. He added that in the majority of the cases they argued that the patient was suffering from serious lower back pain.

According to figures presented in a meeting of the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee in July, there were 22,254 licensed medical cannabis users in Israel as of May 2015. This represents more than a 12-fold increase over the 1,800 licensed users in Israel in 2009.

Of the 22,254 licensed users, 7,350 receive cannabis for treatment for oncologic diseases, while around half of the remaining 14,905 receive cannabis to treat chronic pain. 

The figures also stated that in the first half of 2015, 12,763 requested were submitted to health authorities regarding medical cannabis, including 2,793 requests for new permits and 6,952 requests for license renewals. The rest of the requests dealt with patients looking to change their licensed dosage.

According to the figures, 60% of new permits were approved as were 98% of renewals.

Typically patients receiving cannabis for pain only receive it after they are approved by a specialist – often an anesthesiologist – and typically only after having been treated in a pain clinic for over a year and after previously trying multiple medications that either did not work or did not sufficiently alleviate the pain.

Medical cannabis is never the first treatment and for many patients it is a last resort.

Patients receive around 30-40 grams a month on average, though patients with more severe conditions or who are not able to smoke and need to make oils or cook with cannabis can receive more. All patients pay a flat rate of NIS 370 per month regardless of how much they are prescribed.

The price is far lower than the street value of high-grade marijuana, which in Israel can easily cost NIS 90 per gram.

In the past few years in Israel the price of hashish has soared due to heavy policing in the South, and especially because of the construction of the fence on the border with Egypt, the source of most hashish smuggled into Israel. The drying up of the hashish market has seen the use of high-grade marijuana soar in Israel and also the number of Israelis who are growing marijuana. This includes not only those growing for personal use, but also large-scale industrial grow operations, which are often run by organized crime groups.

In addition, a large amount of medical cannabis has made its way onto the street as the demand and the number of licensed patients has risen in recent years.