Kfar Pines (Israel)
(AFP) - With its moat, wall, barbed wire, armed guards and security
cameras, the facility could be mistaken for a military base if it
weren't for the pungent odour of marijuana in the air.
Here, on the
outskirts of a quiet village in northern Israel, 50,000 plants of 230
varieties grow at the country's second-largest medical cannabis
plantation.
"For cannabis, we
are in the promised land with a good climate, 300 days of sunshine each
year and perfect levels of humidity," said Tamir Gedo, head of BOL
Pharma, a company authorised by the Israeli health ministry to grow and
distribute medical cannabis.
The
recreational use of cannabis is illegal in the Jewish state, but for
the past 10 years its therapeutic use has not only been permitted but
also encouraged.
The purpose is not to cure them but to alleviate their symptoms.
The use of cannabis in medicine divides doctors around issues of addiction and behavioural problems such as aggression.
Nevertheless, it has long been known to revive lost appetite and to help in treating sleep disorders, anxiety and inflammation, its supporters say.
They say much research remains to be done but it is advancing faster in Israel, where authorities allow human clinical trials, than in many other countries.
Entrepreneurs,
investors and researchers are increasingly entering the business and
searching for the holy grail of medicinal marijuana: a purified form of
the drug with minimal side-effects and which can be administered in
accurate doses.
Inside the
fortified premises of BOL (Breath Of Life) Pharma are laboratories and
greenhouses, with each plant monitored by software that remotely
controls its biochemical parameters.
Growing cannabis for
medical use demands careful supervision of active ingredients such as
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which gives recreational users their high
but is not recommended for all patients, particularly children.
"With
the support of the (health) ministry, which has always had a pioneering
attitude to this issue, we have built up expertise in clinical trials
and we can share it with companies in the United States and Europe,"
said Gedo.
- A world hash hub? -
Forbidden to export its cannabis plants, Israel is concentrating instead on marketing its agronomic, medical and technological expertise in the hope of becoming a world hub in the field.
About 200 industry players gathered in Tel Aviv this month for Canna Tech, an international conference on the industry.
Suited salespeople, some a little red-eyed despite a ban on consumption laid down by the organisers, exhibited products including electronic cannabis cigarettes, cannabis-based creams and ointments and a remedy for dry mouth.
Some startups are focused on the plant's by-products, others on user accessories, but a few have bigger ideas.
"Look at what has happened in the past two years, the speed at which legalisation of cannabis is advancing," said Saul Kaye, head of the first Israeli incubator for cannabis industry startups.
"We're not going to miss this opportunity, and seeing what the first investors are putting on the table, we feel that it is going to be very big."
In
January, US tobacco giant Philip Morris ploughed $20 million into
Israeli company Syke, which produces precision inhalers for medical
cannabis.
At the same time,
Israeli firm Eybna announced it had isolated therapeutic organic
compounds from the plant without the psychoactive ingredients which make
unprescribed use illegal.
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