Following a petition from the Medical Cannabis Association, an Israeli nonprofit organization, Israel’s High Court of Justice issued an order temporarily freezing medical cannabis reforms.
The Ministry of Health’s cannabis reform ordered growers to surrender all products that do not meet the new standards of quality, which resulted in pharmacists blaming growers for cannabis shortages and jacked-up prices; patients, in turn, blamed pharmacies.
Israel’s medical cannabis reform was supposed to standardize the industry and boost competition by introducing higher quality control but ended up creating a supply shortage and increased prices.
Before the reform, prices were determined by an agreement between the growers and the state. The new regulation, however, was supposed to adjust the cost of medical cannabis according to its active ingredient ratio. In other words, the price was determined by the free market; i.e., the companies, investors, and stakeholders in the medical cannabis industry called the shots when it comes to pricing.
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