Medical marijuana clinic head accused of drug trafficking

Police raided Tikkun Olam clinic, reportedly preventing patients from receiving monthly medical cannabis doses.

By BEN HARTMAN
Medical marijuana 311 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Medical marijuana 311
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Police on Wednesday raided the Tel Aviv offices of a medical marijuana supplier and arrested two managers suspected of drug trafficking.
The raids took place in the morning at the Tikkun Olam clinic in north Tel Aviv, as well as a nearby storefront operated by the organization, where the 2,000 patients who they supply with medical marijuana each month come to receive their cannabis.
RELATED:Medical cannabis in Israel: Revolution or evolution?
On Wednesday afternoon, the storefront was shuttered and a note outside told patients that they would not be able to receive their doses for the time being.
Tikkun Olam said that during the course of the raid, police herded patients outside the clinic in the middle of their treatment, and prevented patients from receiving their monthly cannabis doses.
Shai Meir, a spokesman for Tikkun Olam, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that police were guilty of entrapment for operating an undercover officer who posed as a patient.
Meir said the officer would come into the storefront a few times a month crying and begging to receive additional marijuana, pleading that the 30 grams a month (the maximum the clinic is allowed to give out by law) was not enough to treat her pain.
“She would receive her monthly dosage and then come back again and again, crying and begging, exploiting the sensitivities of the employees who acted out of concern for her well-being,” Meir said.
Meir added that the undercover agent had a legitimate prescription for medical marijuana issued by the Health Ministry, which he and Tikkun Olam see as “a disgraceful cooperation between the police and the Health Ministry to entrap us.”
Meir added that police took computers and documents from both of the clinic’s offices, and that at the moment they are not capable of providing marijuana to any of their 2,000 patients.
Tel Aviv Police said they carried out the raid because they had received a number of complaints that the organization was handing out marijuana in excess of the 30 grams a month limit. Police said they had reason to believe that a significant amount of marijuana was given to criminal organizations who acquired fake prescriptions.
Last month, the Health Ministry’s professional committee published a proposal to include medical marijuana in the health basket.
An official from the committee added that patients will still be required to pay a fee for the marijuana, which, he added, would be supplied in pharmacies within the next six months.