US Has Funded Israeli Cannabis Research For 50 Years,
But There’s “No Medicinal Value”?
By Anna Wilcox, October 2016 ‘Herb.co’
The U.S. government says that cannabis has
“no medicinal value”, yet has been funding
research in Israel for a half of a century. What
gives?
Apparently, the U.S. government has been
funding medical cannabis research for the
past several decades.
Only, they outsourced it to another country.
For half of a century, the National Institute of
Health has provided an annual grant to Israeli
research on the herb.
The big question is, if cannabis has “no
medical value”, why has the U.S. funded
Israeli research for 50 years?
A half-century’s worth of funding
If you’re a cannabis nerd, you may have heard
of Dr. Raphael Mechoulam. Mechoulam is
the man who first discovered THC.
Back in the early 1960s, Mechoulam asked
the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) for
funding on his cannabis research.
Unfortunately, true to form, they turned him
down.
However, according to a Newsweek report,
one year after Mechoulams first inquiry, he
got a call from the NIH.
Apparently, after an unnamed U.S. Senator
caught his son smoking a little cannabis, the
senator called the NIH to find out what the
herb actually did to the brain.
No one had the answer.
So, the same official that once rejected
Mechoulams research called him with some
good news.
The NIH would grant $100,000 to
Mechoulams team each year for further study
on the health effects of cannabis.
This funding has continued for over 50 years.
This is amazing, as it is really tough to get an
NIH overseas grant.
A half-century’s worth of medical discovery
In that time, Mechoulam and his team have
unearthed a wealth of medical potential in the
cannabis plant.
This includes findings that suggest that:
• Cannabinoids aid in recovery after
brain injury
• Cannabinoids have neuroprotective
properties
• CBD has antipsychotic properties
• Cannabinoids may aid in autoimmune
conditions
• CBD lowers incidence of diabetes
• CBD aids in epilepsy
The few findings mentioned here are only the
very beginning of what Mechoulam and
associated teams have discovered.
The research conducted in Israel since the
1960s has lent itself to cannabis reform time
and time again.
Without Mechoulams contributions, we may
not have the medical cannabis programs that
we have today.
In his own country, Mechoulam has won
several major awards and honours for his
work.
Now, Israel’s medical cannabis industry is
blooming. Patients can access medical
cannabis for cancer, chronic pain, post-
traumatic stress disorder, paediatric epilepsy,
arthritis, and Crohn’s disease.