A woman smokes during an event marking Israel’s government’s approval of a new policy to decriminalize personal marijuana use in Tel Aviv, Israel February 4, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS/BAZ RATNER)
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The pot rush is rapidly growing.
Starting with Zehut’s slow rise and success through the election polls, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming on Monday night that “it is possible that legalization of marijuana would happen,” more and more parties realize that the “need for weed” might secure a few more Knesset seats.
Leader of Zehut Moshe Feiglin began his campaign with a very humble goal: to pass the electoral threshold. Feiglin claimed that his party “is going to be the surprise of the 2019 elections,” mostly due to his secret “weapon,” a claim that he plans to legalize marijuana and harness the famous legalization advocate Gadi Vilcherski to the cause.
Last week, Feiglin tweeted that “people stopped asking [him] about the threshold and started asking from what age will pot be sold in stores.” It seems to have made great waves among right-wing parties, as their leaders slowly started making positive remarks toward legalization, perhaps in the hope of harnessing the crowd that supports Feiglin for that cause alone.
לאט לאט מפסיקים לשאול אותי על אחוז החסימה – ומתחילים לשאול מאיזה גיל יהיה מותר לקנות קנאביס בחנויות…
בתגובות: לינק לראיון ב-@radio103fm בתוכנית של @YinonMagal ו-@AnatDavidov
— משה פייגלין (@moshefeiglin) March 5, 2019
On his recently launched LikudTV, Netanyahu said, “I am now looking into the matter [of legalization]… It’s possible that it will happen.” Netanyahu comments on cannabis legalization, March 12, 2019 (Likud TV)
But the epidemic did not stop there. Co-leader of the New Right Party Ayelet Shaked also related to the issue in an interview to 103 FM radio on Tuesday morning.
“There is a problem with medical cannabis in Israel. Patients do not receive the quantities they need [and] the issue of medical cannabis needs to be fixed,” Shaked claimed. “We are examining the prospect of legalization and its effects on health.”
Labor leader Avi Gabbay confessed to smoking pot and supporting Cannabis legalization in a Channel 12 interview aired on Sunday evening.
Whether or not the politicians mean what they say, or attempt to persuade voters, there are some who warn against this. Leader of the Magen Party Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch claimed that, “the debate on cannabis has become populist and requires the use of judgment.”
The promise for legalization might play a part in the success of parties in the upcoming elections. Politicians slowly realize this and more might therefore voice that they are willing to make a joint effort to follow the lead of countries like Uruguay and Canada, as well as some US states.
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