MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLINIC HEAD ACCUSED OF DRUG TRAFFICKING

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

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.

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.