Medical Cannabis in Israel: Mechoulam, the National Program and the Research (2026)

By James Buddsey · Updated October 16, 2026

Israel runs one of the world’s largest national medical cannabis programs, with more than 130,000 licensed patients by the end of 2023, and it is the country where modern cannabis science began. Chemist Raphael Mechoulam identified the structure of THC there in 1964 and later helped discover the body’s own cannabinoids. Recreational cannabis is still illegal, but personal use has been decriminalized since 2019.

When The Weed Street Journal first wrote about Israel in 2012, about 10,000 patients held medical cannabis licenses. That number has grown more than tenfold, the rules have been rewritten several times, and Mechoulam, the scientist behind much of it, died in 2023. Here is how Israel’s program works, how it got there and why it matters to cannabis research everywhere.

Israel Medical Cannabis at a Glance

Raphael Mechoulam: Where Cannabis Science Started

Raphael Mechoulam was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1930 and emigrated to Israel as a young man. In the early 1960s, working at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he set out to identify the active compounds in cannabis, which had been used for thousands of years without anyone knowing what made it work. His group worked out the structure of cannabidiol (CBD) in 1963. In 1964, Mechoulam and Yehiel Gaoni isolated and described delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, the main intoxicating compound in the plant.

He spent most of his career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1992 his lab, with postdoctoral researchers William Devane and Lumír Hanuš, isolated anandamide, the first known endocannabinoid: a molecule the body makes that acts on the same receptors as THC. In 1995 his student Shimon Ben-Shabat discovered a second, 2-AG. Those findings define what is now called the endocannabinoid system, which researchers study in pain, appetite, mood, sleep and inflammation. Our explainer on THC and other cannabinoids covers how these compounds act.

Mechoulam received the Israel Prize in 2000 and the Harvey Prize, along with a NIDA Discovery Award in 2011. He died in Jerusalem on March 9, 2023, at 92 (biography).

How Israel’s Medical Program Grew

Israel’s Health Ministry began issuing individual medical cannabis licenses in the early 1990s. Growth was slow at first. By 2012 about 10,000 people held licenses, mostly for cancer, severe chronic pain, and conditions such as Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

For years the system was a bottleneck. In early 2016 only 36 doctors were permitted to prescribe cannabis and eight farms were licensed to grow it, and patients waited months for approval, the Times of Israel reported. Then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman pushed a reform to move sales into pharmacies, license more doctors and farms, and tighten supply-chain controls. At that point Israel had about 23,000 known medical cannabis consumers (Times of Israel).

The reform took several years to roll out, and pharmacy sales became the norm. Patient numbers climbed past 120,000, briefly dipped in early 2023, and reached more than 137,940 active patients by December 2023, according to industry analysts at Prohibition Partners, who describe it as one of the highest per-capita rates of medical use in the world.

The 2023 to 2024 Reform: From Licenses to Prescriptions

Until recently, every Israeli patient needed a personal license from the ministry’s medical cannabis unit, renewed periodically. In August 2023 the Health Ministry announced it would move cannabis closer to an ordinary prescription drug. Under the plan, certified doctors would prescribe directly for approved conditions, with the prescription going into the patient’s regular medical file, and patients with conditions such as Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, Tourette syndrome and dementia would no longer need a separate license (report). The ministry also said it would consider removing CBD from the controlled substances list.

The rollout was delayed more than once, partly because of the war that began in October 2023, and a trial phase started in 2024 with a review planned after its first year. Check the Israeli Ministry of Health for the current list of conditions and prescribing rules, which may have changed since.

Decriminalization and Recreational Use

Adult-use cannabis is not legal in Israel. The Knesset passed a decriminalization law in 2018, which took effect on April 1, 2019. Adults caught using in public pay an administrative fine, roughly 1,000 shekels for a first offense and double that for a second, instead of facing criminal charges. Repeat offenses can still lead to a criminal case, and the policy does not cover soldiers or minors. Proposals for full legalization have been raised in the Knesset but have not passed.

Israel’s Role in Cannabis Research

Israel’s head start in chemistry, combined with a government-run patient program, made it a research hub. Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, the Technion and major hospitals have run studies on cannabinoids in pain, epilepsy, cancer symptoms and other conditions, and Israeli companies have pursued cannabinoid drugs.

Much of what is now standard knowledge, including how THC and CBD differ and how the endocannabinoid system works, traces back to Mechoulam’s lab. Later work worldwide, including the trials behind the U.S. approval of the CBD drug Epidiolex for rare epilepsies, built on that foundation; see our coverage of cannabis and epilepsy and what CBD helps. As with any medical cannabis program, a large patient count shows access, not proof that cannabis works for every listed condition.

For how other countries compare, see our list of countries where weed is legal and our history of marijuana. More studies are in our cannabis research section.

Israel Medical Cannabis FAQ

For adults 21+ in legal states. General information, not medical advice.