Pubdate: Wed, 13 Nov 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: David Wainer, Bloomberg News
Page: 7

ISRAEL SWITCHES TO HOMEGROWN POT

Previously Relied on Arab Countries

Tighter Border Security Thwarts Shipments

TEL AVIV - A few years back Israeli cannabis smokers grappled with the
notion that their drug money often enriched the country's foes. These
days, they're more likely to light up marijuana produced in Tel Aviv
basements or villas outside Jerusalem than hashish smuggled in from
abroad.

"Marijuana has quietly become the main product here," said Daniel
Nahum, a former paratrooper who first noticed the change when he began
smelling pot in bohemian neighborhoods of Jaffa, an ancient port city
south of Tel Aviv.

The shift in Israel's cannabis supply is an unintended effect of
tighter border security. While Israelis long smoked hash from
neighboring Arab countries, a new fence and more vigilance on the
borders have thwarted shipments. In response, Israeli dealers are
increasingly growing their own.

"While we are successfully foiling attempts to smuggle hash, we are
also noticing a spike in seizures of home operations," said police
spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.

A surge in African migrants entering the country from the Sinai Desert
spurred Israel to build a 143-mile fence along the border. The
6-meter-high barrier, topped with barbed wire, was completed in
January after two years of construction. Stronger patrols after the
second Lebanon war in 2006 and the civil strife in Syria had already
restricted supplies from the north.

"From a public-interest standpoint, this is a positive development,"
said Boaz Wachtel, founder of Alei Yarok, or the Green Leaf Party, and
a key figure in bringing medicinal cannabis to the country. "The stuff
grown inside Israel is of higher quality. Some hash coming in from
Lebanon was just clay mixed with sap." Even better, Wachtel says: Drug
money is no longer going to places "that shoot missiles at us."

Though the exact organizations that benefit from the hashish trade are
not known, attacks on Israel from militant groups operating in the
Sinai area have intensified in recent years. In Lebanon, cannabis is
grown in the fertile Bekaa Valley, a stronghold of the anti-Israeli
Hezbollah.

Medical marijuana is tightly controlled in Israel, where scientists
have led global advances in understanding the health benefits of the
plant. About 9,000 patients suffering from diseases such as cancer and
multiple sclerosis are using the drug.

Three quarters of Israelis believe marijuana has legitimate medical
uses, according to a survey commissioned by the Jerusalem Institute
for Market Studies.

The dwindling supply of cheaper hash from Arab countries is costing
Israeli smokers. Black-market marijuana has risen to about 100 shekels
($28) per gram from 70 shekels three years ago, said Wachtel. That's
about four times what medium quality pot costs in California,
according to priceofweed.com, which collects anonymous reports.

Moshe Feiglin, a Knesset member from the leading Likud party, is
pushing to make it easier for doctors to prescribe medical marijuana.

"The vision is that from age 21 every Israeli citizen will be able to
go to a pharmacy and buy cannabis under very strict regulation,"
Feiglin said in an interview. "This might be good for our economy and
would help improve the quality of the medicine, but for me this is
above all about liberty."

Attitudes toward recreational use are more conservative than in the
U.S. Only 15 percent of Israelis say they've used marijuana and 26
percent support legalization of the drug, according to the Institute
for Market Studies.

That compares with 52 percent support for legalization in the U.S.,
according to a March survey by the Pew Research Center.

In the meantime, Israeli growers are sprouting to feed the black
market, estimated at $700 million a year, according to the Market
Studies institute. A decade ago about 70 percent of Israeli cannabis
came through Egypt and Lebanon, Wachtel estimates. These days less
than a third comes from those two countries and Jordan, and the rest
is local.

While recreational-pot smoking is illegal in Israel, authorities
rarely press charges against people holding small quantities,
according to Gazit. Tamar Zandberg, a 37-year-old member of the
Knesset from the leftwing Meretz party, last month proposed
legislation to fully decriminalize casual use.

Nahum, the former paratrooper, says that while the price has gone up,
his potsmoking buddies don't complain too much because the quality has
improved.

"I had been telling my friends not to smoke hash coming from Arab
countries already before the marijuana market began booming in
Israel," Nahum said. "The hash they were buying was coming from groups
that often have an anti-Israel agenda, and no one knows what went into
it."
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