Israel’s Ariel University is offering the nation’s first academic course on medical cannabis, covering the plant’s medicinal history, active ingredients, clinical uses, legal status, and farming techniques, according to a Jewish Business News report. The course, designed for medical administration students, has enrolled 117 students.
Dr. Michael Dor, a senior lecturer at the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences, said that “dozens” of students were rejected do to the “very high” demand and “lack of space.”
Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced its Multidisciplinary Center on Cannabinoid Research at last year’s CannaTech conference. Hebrew University Professor Raphael Mechoulam is credited with first identifying THC.
Israel, the U.S., Canada, Italy, and Spain have a joint agreement to research cannabis. In Israel there are about 26,000 licensed medicinal cannabis patients in Israel and that figure is expected to double by next year.
Last month, an inter-ministerial committee of director generals comprised of the Ministries of Justice, Finance, Public Security, and Health proposed a plan to begin exporting medicinal cannabis. The committee said the industry would create thousands of agricultural jobs and be worth more than $2.6 billion annually.
Details of that proposal, which would need cabinet approval, are expected in the coming weeks.