I<\/span>srael is the self-styled global capital for marijuana research and development, a reputation enjoyed thanks to government-sanctioned clinical trials, international investors pouring $100 million dollars into Israeli marijuana-related firms in 2016 alone and a slew of marijuana growers eager to capitalize on a very loaded promise from the country\u2019s agriculture minister.<\/p>\n Israel<\/a> is about the same physical size and has roughly the same population size as New Jersey. Israel-based cannabis growers have said there isn\u2019t enough domestic demand to make growing weed economically feasible, but jumped in anyway. Marijuana farming has been hailed<\/a> as a savior for the country\u2019s kibbutz movement as well as for a stalling agricultural sector \u2014 but everything hinged on the premise that 2018 is the year they\u2019ll be allowed to join a very small group of countries that export cannabis.<\/p>\n So far, only Canada, Uruguay and the Netherlands export medical marijuana to other countries. They do so in very limited quantities \u2014 exports account for about 1 percent of Canada\u2019s overall production \u2014 which would seem to guarantee some room for Israel.<\/p>\n In 2016, Uri Ariel, the country\u2019s agriculture minister, predicted that <\/a>Israeli marijuana growers would be able to export \u201cwithin two years.\u201d In response, \u201cdozens\u201d of marijuana companies secured cultivation licenses and started to grow. A total of 277 farmers and entrepreneurs in the country have individual grow licenses, and there are at least 12 distinct \u201ccannabis-growing farms\u201d in the country, according to<\/a> attorney Hagit Weinstock, who represents about 60 growing clients.<\/p>\n By January, they\u2019d produced about $300 million worth of marijuana, according to the Jerusalem Post<\/a> \u2014 but had secured no permits to start exporting. All that pot is now lying around with no place to sell it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Remember, cannabis is a flower and it doesn\u2019t keep forever \u2014 so, now irked and jilted cannabis producers have produced more than twice the amount of marijuana they can sell, and are facing at eating a loss estimated in \u201cbillions of shekels,\u201d according to the Post. (A shekel is equal to about $0.30 U.S. dollars.)<\/p>\n Blame\u2019s been laid all around. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government delayed consideration of a measure that would have legalized exports until next year. The country\u2019s public security minister, Gilad Erdan, asked the country for millions of shekels to securely stash the drug caches at airports, cash the Post says he hasn\u2019t yet received. Finally, earlier this month, a report claimed<\/a> that Netanyahu \u2014 who may soon be charged with corruption<\/a> for allegedly accepting bribes \u2014 had quashed the whole export arrangement on request from U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Then on Monday, Netanyahu reportedly told a meeting of ruling Likud Party officials that it\u2019s not him or Trump but opposition from Israeli police and Erdan\u2019s Public Security Ministry<\/a> that\u2019s blocking the export plan from becoming reality. According to Green Market Report<\/a>, Israeli police aren\u2019t approving marijuana for export because it\u2019s either low-quality or based on strains \u201csmuggled into the country illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n However, not everyone can agree on exactly what\u2019s right and what\u2019s just noise.<\/p>\n Ariel, the agriculture minister, pointed blame back at Netanyahu.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no appeal by U.S. President Trump on the matter,\u201d he said, according to the Jerusalem Post. \u201cThe prime minister is the address to go to.\u201d<\/p>\n If the example set by other countries is any indication, he\u2019s right. In Canada, exports of medical marijuana began as soon as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office.\u00a0Beginning in 2016, with permission from the national health agency Health Canada, Canadian companies exported about 100 pounds of cannabis flower and more than 200 pounds of cannabis oil through July 20, 2017, according to Marijuana Business Daily<\/a>.\u00a0Destinations for Canadian-grown cannabis included Australia, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands\u2026 and, oddly, Israel.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that what Canada is doing technically violates international law. A pair of international treaties,<\/a> signed in 1961 and 1971, forbid signatories from engaging in trade in \u201cnarcotics.\u201d The need to comply with these treaties is sometimes cited as justification for obstructing drug-policy reform in the United States. Recently, lawyers for the DEA trotted out these treaties <\/a>as reason for outlawing a domestic trade in CBD oil gleaned from hemp.<\/p>\n The example set by Canada, the Netherlands, Uruguay and now Australia \u2014 which earlier this year announced its own plans<\/a> to join the global weed-exporting world \u2014 gives the lie to both the DEA\u2019s line as well as Netanyahu\u2019s excuse-making. A country can do what it pleases, and the U.S. doesn\u2019t appear to care much about it.<\/p>\n Back in Israel, there\u2019s immense pressure to fulfill the export promise and open up that market \u2014 and soon.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think countries should import and export cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Israel Struggles to Export $300 Million Worth of Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s government overpromised on their ability to export marijuana, and then the country\u2019s cannabis producers overdelivered. Now the country has too much weed, with nowhere to go. Israel is the self-styled global capital for marijuana research and development, a reputation enjoyed thanks to government-sanctioned clinical trials, international investors pouring $100Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,50,80,170,3514,3515,133],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24107,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106\/revisions\/24107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Israel Struggles to Export 0 Million Worth of Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"