Israel countries/il.yaml
Since 2019 publicPersonal possession bringsand use up to 15 g are administrative offences carrying a fixed fine rather than prosecution, and private use at home is not enforceda criminal record, but police issued no such fines between 2022 and 2025. Israel runs one of the world's largest medical programmes relative to populationAbove 15 g, and for all growing and supply, criminal law applies. Medical cannabis is legal and large: 145,758 active licences and prescriptions in June 2026.
Possession of up to 15 g for personal use is an administrative offence under the 2022 regulations, notwith a crime: a fixed fine of 500 shekels for possession or private use and 1,000 shekels for public use, and no criminal record, under rules first introduced in 2019 and made permanent and broader in 2022. Possession at home in small amounts[@admin_fines] The 15 g line comes from the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance's Second Schedule: above it, possession is generallypresumed not enforcedto be for personal consumption unless the accused proves otherwise.[@ddo] Above 15 g the offence carries up to 20 years in prison, or for soldiers and minorsup to three years where the court accepts personal use.[@ddo] Possession in a school by a non-student aged 16 or over carries up to five years.[@ddo] Soldiers, criminal law appliesreservists in certain police or prison units, and prisoners are outside the administrative scheme.[@admin_fines] Minors have been covered by the fines since 16 February 2023.[@mako2023] In practice the fine scheme has not been used: police issued no administrative cannabis fines between 2022 and 2025.[@meida2026]
chambersadmin_fines, wikiddo, mako2023, meida2026
Growing cannabis without a licence from the health ministry's Director-General is a criminal offence, including a single plant at home.[@ddo] Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance sets a maximum of twenty years in prison or a fine.[@ddo] There is no personal-use exception for cultivation, and medical patients must obtain their cannabis through the licensed medical system rather than growing it.[@regs2024]
ddo, regs2024
Personal users getare meant to receive a fine. Growing, while growing, dealing and larger quantities are criminal offences with prison. The gap between the two is wide in practice: police issued no administrative cannabis fines in 2022–2025, after 50,335 fines in 2019–2022, and said the enforcement framework for the 2022 regulations was still being designed.[@meida2026] Police opened 9,164 files for drug trafficking, possession not for personal use, cultivation or manufacture in 2024, a category that covers all drugs.[@police2024]
wikimeida2026, chamberspolice2024
Supply of any kind is treated as dealing: section 13 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance forbids supplying a drug in any way, "whether for payment or not", and section 19A sets a maximum of twenty years in prison or a fine.[@ddo] Giving cannabis to a minor, allowing a minor to obtain or use it, or inducing a minor carries up to twenty-five years, with imprisonment mandatory on conviction.[@ddo]
Use in public is fined undercovered by the same administrative scheme. Use as possession: 500 shekels for use not in a privatepublic place and 1,000 shekels for use in public, with no criminal record.[@admin_fines] Private use at home is in practice left alonetherefore an administrative offence, not a legal act, even though it is rarely enforced.[@admin_fines] Police issued no cannabis fines at all between 2022 and 2025.[@meida2026]
wikiadmin_fines, chambersmeida2026
NoThere are no adult-use shops. But Israel has one of the world's largest medical programmes per headrelative to population: 145, with cannabis sold758 active licences and prescriptions in ordinary pharmacies; sinceJune 2026.[@imcu2026] The April 2024 many more doctors, including in thereform moved ten indications to health funds-fund prescriptions, can prescribe it directly instead of applying forcapped at 60 g a licence for each patientmonth, but chronic pain and PTSD remained under Medical Cannabis Unit licences.[@regs2024]
chambersimcu2026, almregs2024
There is no legal recreational supply. Up to 15 g for personal use is an administrative offence —with a fixed fine and no record —, and home use in small amounts is generally not enforced; public use is fined the same way.[@chambers,wikiadmin_fines] Above 15 g, and for soldiers, prisoners and minorsall supply, criminal law applies, and any supply counts as dealing.[@chambers,ddo] The fine scheme exists but has not been used since 2022.[@meida2026] No adult-use bill was advancing in 2026.
chambersadmin_fines, wiki, ddo, meida2026
Licensed medical cultivation, manufacturing, import and pharmacy distributionexport are well developed, with no cap on the number of growers. No[@regs2024] There is no production for adult use. The medical sector is export-oriented and regulated by the Medical Cannabis Unit under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.[@regs2024]
chambers, almregs2024
A wide range of medical flower and oils, labelled by THC and CBD content. Nothing for general sale.
chambers
Broad by international standards:Medical cannabis is legal on prescription for a list of conditionsten indications, including chronic painactive oncology, cancerinflammatory bowel disease, PTSD and othersAIDS, dispensed in pharmaciesmultiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Tourette syndrome, epilepsy, terminal illness, autism and dementia. The 2024 reform moved from[@regs2024] Prescriptions are capped at 60 g a licence model to amonth and are written by specialists or authorised health-fund and hospital physicians, not primary-care doctors.[@regs2024] Chronic non-cancer pain and PTSD, the two largest categories, remained under Medical Cannabis Unit licences rather than the prescription model for many indicationsroute.[@aviram2025] Active licences and prescriptions reached 145,758 in June 2026.[@imcu2026]
chambersregs2024, almaviram2025, imcu2026
The administrative fine leaves no criminal record. The decriminalisation, but a criminal conviction for possession above 15 g, cultivation or supply does not apply to soldiers.[@ddo] Soldiers, reservists in certain police or prison units, and drug-driving rulesprisoners are strictoutside the administrative scheme.[@admin_fines] A drug conviction can also affect sentencing for later offences.[@ddo]
wikiddo, admin_fines
The Dangerous Drugs Ordinance treats the cannabis plant, all of its components and its derivatives as a dangerous drug.[@ddo] Cultivation, possession, distribution, transport and every other activity involving the pl … licence; seeds and clones are therefore available only within the licensed medical system.[@regs2024]
knesset_medddo, gov_licensingregs2024
No law provides for cannabis clubs, and supplying cannabis, even unpaid, is treated as dealing.[@ddo] What exists is a bring-your-own lounge for patients. HaTachana 420 opened in Tel Aviv's Fl … medical prescription, and supplies nothing, members smoking what they bought at a pharmacy; its founder contrasted it with Barcelona's clubs on exactly that point.[@to23] No police action against it was reported. No growing club, and no venue for people without a medical licence, was found, and whether the lounge still operates could not be confirmed.
to23ddo, wikito23
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Possession of up to 15 g for personal use is an administrative offence, not a crime: a fixed fine and no criminal record.[@admin_fines] Above 15 g criminal law applies, and the law makes no exception for visitors.[@ddo]
chambersadmin_fines, wikiddo
The Traffic Ordinance makes it an offence to be '"intoxicated'" while driving or in charge of a vehicle, and defines an intoxicated person to include anyone who has a dangerous drug, or the metabolic products of one, in their body.[@pkt64] No level is set, so traces left by earlier use count. The definition leaves out drugs that[@pkt64] A medical cannabis licence is not a defence, and the health minister has exempted on set conditionspatient-driving regulations never came into force.[@pkt64] The offence carries up to two years in prison or a fine, and a conviction brings at least two years' licence disqualification.[@pkt64]
Israel — Administrative Offences Regulations (Administrative Fine — Possession of Cannabis and Use for Personal Consumption), 5772–2022
Israel — Dangerous Drugs Regulations, 5740–1979, consolidated to 3 July 2026 (Nevo)
Israel Ministry of Health — Procedure 106, medical cannabis, update 7 (January 2024)
Israel Ministry of Health — Medical Cannabis Unit report, June 2026
Israel Police Statistical Yearbook 2024 (published 3 May 2026)
Movement for Freedom of Information — Police data: zero cannabis fines in the last three years (10 March 2026)
Mako — Administrative cannabis fines extend to minors from today (16 February 2023)
Medical cannabis in Israel: a comprehensive review of trends and regulations, 2011–2025
JPost — Israel will remove CBD from Dangerous Drug Ordinance (28 February 2022)
Journal of Cannabis Research — The father of cannabis research, Q&A with Raphael Mechoulam (30 January 2020)
UNODC Data Portal — police contacts for drug possession (World Drug Report 2026 data)
Chambers Practice Guides — Medical cannabis and cannabinoid regulation 2024: Israel
Wikipedia — Cannabis in Israel
Al-Monitor — Israel's cannabis revolution
Knesset Research and Information Center — Medical Cannabis, Updated Overview (2020)
Israel Ministry of Health — Engaging in the cannabis field
3 unchanged
ILS
upto 15 g · treatment civil · term Administrative offence · fine 500 · note Public use 1,000 shekels; no criminal record; presumed personal use, over 15 g · treatment criminal · term Section 7(c) · prison 20 years · note Presumed not for personal use; own use up to 3 years, label Possession in a school by a non-student aged 16 or over · treatment criminal · term Section 7(d) · prison 5 years
label Any cultivation, including one plant · treatment criminal · term Section 6 · prison 20 years · note No personal-use exception; a health ministry licence is required
label Supply, sale, trade or import/export, paid or free · treatment criminal · term Section 13 · prison 20 years, label Supply to a minor or inducing a minor · treatment criminal · term Section 21 · prison 25 years · note Imprisonment mandatory
ILS
label Use not in a public place · treatment civil · term Administrative offence · fine 500, label Use in a public place · treatment civil · term Administrative offence · fine 1000 · note No fines issued between 2022 and 2025
none
There is no separate industrial-hemp regime. The Dangerous Drugs Ordinance defines cannabis to include every part of the plant except oil from its seeds, so low-THC hemp still needs a cultivation licence.[@ddo] In February 2022 the health minister announced that CBD below a low THC threshold would leave the ordinance, but no enacted exemption was found and the current schedule still catches cannabis extracts.[@cbd2022,ddo]
ddo, cbd2022
The illicit market remains large. Police opened 9,164 files for drug trafficking, possession not for personal use, cultivation or manufacture in 2024, a category covering all drugs, and police laboratories tested 10.45 tonnes of cannabis and 1.6 tonnes of hashish that year.[@police2024] No cannabis-specific arrest total was found, and the 9,164 figure should not be read as cannabis alone.[@police2024]
police2024
Police issued no administrative cannabis fines in 2022–2025, after 50,335 fines in 2019–2022.[@meida2026] UNODC data record 7,497 police contacts for drug possession in 2024, covering all drugs.[@unodc] The two series measure different things and neither is cannabis-specific.
meida2026, unodc
Israel's cannabis science began with [Raphael Mechoulam](/culture/people/raphael-mechoulam/), who isolated THC in 1964 with Yehiel Gaoni from hashish supplied by the police, and whose group later found the body's own cannabinoids.[@mechoulam2020] His laboratory also hosted [Lumír Hanuš](/culture/people/lumir-hanus/), the Czech chemist who co-discovered anandamide in Jerusalem in 1992.[@mechoulam2020] That research tradition is why Israel's medical programme is unusually large and why the country is a centre of cannabinoid science.
mechoulam2020