Media Report: Israeli medical cannabis use falls as HMOs tighten approvals, focus on PTSD, chronic pain

The Jerusalem Post

The number of Israelis receiving medical cannabis has fallen for the first time since 2011. Researcher argues decline not a reflection of improvement in health but of stricter HMO gatekeeping.

Israel’s once surging medical cannabis program has recorded its first decline in patient numbers after more than a decade of rapid expansion, according to a new peer-reviewed study of Health Ministry data. The analysis, by Israeli researcher Joshua Aviram and published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, tracked every license and prescription issued between 2011 and March 2025 and found that patient numbers are now falling even as doses rise and treatment concentrates on chronic pain and PTSD patients.

In April 2011, just 3,097 Israelis held a medical cannabis license. By January 2024, that figure had reached 140,483 active licenses, an increase of about 4,437 percent, as the state gradually expanded eligibility and allowed more physicians to prescribe.

After the most recent reform, which in April 2024 shifted many indications from the Health Ministry’s Medical Cannabis Unit (IMCU) to Israel’s four health funds, the combined number of active licenses and HMO prescriptions fell by about 7.5 percent to roughly 129,900 patients by March 2025. That rolled numbers back to levels last seen in late 2023, the study found.

Aviram argues that the decline does not reflect a sudden improvement in Israelis’ health. Instead, he links it to stricter HMO gatekeeping, “transition frictions” as patients move between systems, and the post-investigation non-renewal of irregular licenses.

At the same time, the reform has made the system harder to track. Many diagnoses and prescriptions now sit inside the internal databases of the health funds, creating what Aviram describes as serious blind spots in national reporting on who receives cannabis and for which conditions.

Read more at

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-873940

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