Israel's government launches new cannabis release initiative
A specially convened committee is supposed to review the legalization in the country.

The Israeli government committee is reportedly preparing to issue a recommendation for comprehensive marijuana legislation in the coming days.
This step comes after the Ministry of Health changed its strategy and supported recreational use. The inter-ministerial committee is composed of representatives from the Israeli Police, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Health. According to a Channel 12 news report last weekend, the group will recommend that the government continue its efforts to decriminalize cannabis on its way to full legalization.
The report said the Ministry of Health had previously spoken out against legalizing the drug beyond medical use, but had changed its stance. Recreational marijuana use is currently illegal in the country, despite the fact that the Department of Public Security partially decriminalized it in 2017 by imposing fines and treatment for first-time offenders instead of criminal proceedings. Last June, two interlinked cannabis legalization laws in the Knesset passed preliminary readings before the three votes required for them to become law. If passed, selling and buying marijuana for personal use would be legal for anyone over the age of 21 in authorized stores, but growing marijuana at home would still be illegal.
The law has also outlined a reform for medical marijuana and will decriminalize possession of up to 50 grams of marijuana, while making possession and use of up to 15 grams of marijuana fully legal by those over the age of 21. The bill will allow 27 percent of all adults in Israel to use cannabis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and Defense Minister Benny Gantz's blue-whites said in a joint statement in June that they would push legislation "to resolve the issue of decriminalization and legalization". The statement said this would be done "through a responsible model that does justice to the State of Israel and the Israeli people".
At the time, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana had said: "The new Public Security Minister's stance is ... to minimize the harm to \[otherwise\] law-abiding citizens who have committed drug-related offenses .

