Israel is the cannabis research capital of the world. The man who started it all, the grandfather of cannabis research, was Professor Raphael Meshulam. He was a chemist and became interested in cannabis in the 1960s. Morphine was isolated from opium in the early 19th century, cocaine was isolated from coca leaves in the mid-19th century, and the chemical composition of cannabis was unknown in the mid-20th century.
It seemed like an interesting project, but it wasn’t easy because marijuana is illegal in Israel, like almost everywhere else. So how did Professor Raphael Mechoulam acquire marijuana for his work? He went to the police station and took five kilograms of marijuana. He didn’t have a car at the time, so when people complained about the strange smell, he used public transportation to deliver the marijuana. They tested the “commodity” on a number of volunteers, including themselves.
It seemed like a simple experiment, but the results were revolutionary. Decades ago, they were the first to isolate THC and CBD — two compounds in cannabis that may have powerful disease-treating abilities. Cannabis is now part of healthcare in Israel – used to treat pain, cancer patients, sleep problems, epilepsy and digestive problems. They even focus on Parkinson’s and Tourette’s. The list gets longer and longer, but there isn’t much research done on patients because it’s hard to do…especially in the US, which has marijuana listed as a Schedule 1 dangerous drug.
In the U.S., researchers had to jump through additional hurdles to use it. It’s expensive and time-consuming, but the father of science says he’s proven it can be done. For the past forty years, his work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health. Now, the country’s Ministry of Health has approved the medical use of cannabis for 10,000 patients and more than a dozen trials for the treatment of conditions ranging from PTSD, pain, Crohn’s disease and even cancer.
