As President Donald Trump’s administration warns that it will crack down on marijuana use, other countries are relaxing their laws. Latest to join the club? Israel, which on Sunday made its first move toward decriminalizing possession for first-time offenders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet has approved a move to reduce penalties for those caught with marijuana. It’s all part of an effort to shift from criminally prosecuting marijuana users to fining them and using that money for educational campaigns. Selling and growing marijuana would still be considered crimes.
Under the policy, which still has to be approved by the country’s parliament, anyone caught using marijuana in public will be fined 1,000 shekels ($271) the first time. The fine doubles on the second offense, the third time will translate to probation, and, then, finally the fourth time would lead to criminal charges. Any minor caught using marijuana would be exempt from criminal charges as long as he or she doesn’t refuse to join a treatment program. That would mark quite a change from the status quo considering that 20 people a day are arrested in Israel for using soft drugs, according to a Haaretz article from last year.
“On the one hand we are opening ourselves up to the future. On the other hand, we understand the dangers and will try to balance the two,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet. Israel is one of the leaders in medical marijuana research and around 25,000 people have licenses to use the drug for those purposes.
Advocates for decriminalization have described it as a first step to begin analyzing whether full legalization would be a smart move. “We don’t want to make things worse,” Sharren Haskel, a member of Israel’s parliament, told the Forward.
