The Israeli "prince of pot", Amos Silver, who founded the leading online cannabis trading platform in the country, was released to house arrest under restrictive conditions after almost three years in prison

In 2017 Silver established what will change the illegal cannabis market in Israel from end to end - The "Telegrass ", an online trading platform for cannabis (and other drugs), that operates on the famous "Telegram" application and takes advantage of the security and anonymity that the application offers to conduct drug transactions.

It is impossible to exaggerate in the description of the effect that "Telegrass" had on the black cannabis market in Israel - in the past, an Israeli citizen (or a tourist) who wanted to buy some weed had to grow the plant by himself or rely on "a friend who knows a friend", but since the establishment of "Telegrass" everyone has an easy access to thousands of different drug dealers from all over the country who are just waiting for new customers.

Apart from the fact that ordering cannabis has become much easier, faster and more convenient (in most cases the dealers arrive at the customer's house in less than an hour) - "Telegrass" has also made a real revolution in the prices:

In 2017, the average price per gram of cannabis in Israel was about 80 NIS (20 GBP). Today, due to the competition between the various dealers, one can find cannabis at prices of 20-40 NIS (5-10 GBP) per gram, sometimes even less.

The endless cat and mouse chase

The Israeli police tried for two years to get their hands on Silver, who fled to the US to continue running the successful venture from a safe place. In 2019, the police finally managed to arrest him - after one of Amos' closest friends became a collaborator with the police, he convinced Amos to get out of the USA and visit Ukraine using a fake wedding cover story.

Silver, who didn't want to disappoint his "good friend", took the bait - he was caught in Kiev by local police and handed over to the Israelis (not before he managed to escape in the last minute from the Kiev airport, under the nose of the Ukrainian police, who had to search for him for a few more days until they managed to catch him again in the Ukrainian city of "Oman". Upon his arrival in Israel Silver was immediately arrested and since then he has been in detention for about 3 years.

Many discussions have been held in court as part of the legal proceedings and all of them have been rejected The court rejected the request of his lawyers to release him to house arrest for fear of his escape.

Silver will stay under the supervision of two close family members in his hometown of Safed, without internet access and in electronic shackles. The release itself is conditional upon the payment of a bond of approximately 150,000 NIS (370000 GBP).

Towards the last round of elections in Israel (which took place on the first of November), and even before Silver was released to house arrest, he's fans and friends formed a political party called "Yesh Kivun" ("There is a direction" - a Hebrew slang that describes a situation of one "scoring" weed) they announced that Silver would be the head the party - As expected, the party did not manage to get enough votes to pass the blocking threshold and enter the Knesset (the Israeli parliament).

It is interesting to note that Silver's trial for the drug dealing offenses themselves has not yet started and all the legal proceedings that took place (which lasted for about 3 years) dealt entirely with the question of the legality of the intrusion into the computers carried out by the police to collect evidence and their admissibility. It appears that the trial is expected to last several months, and perhaps even several years until the final verdict is reached.

The medical cannabis company in a campaign in favor of legalization: "Standing on the right side"

"The time has come for the leading cannabis companies in Israel to stop sitting on the fence and unequivocally express their support for legalization" says the CEO of the medical cannabis company BOL Pharma and announces that he will donate 5% of the profits from the sale of some of the company's cannabis strains to the benefit of the fight for legalization in Israel

The medical cannabis company BOL Pharma is leading a dedicated campaign for the regulation of a legal cannabis market in Israel and intends to donate tens of thousands of shekels to promote this cause. The new campaign launched these days is entitled "Standing on the right Side".

As part of the "Standing on the Right Side" campaign, which will last until the end of the year (2022), BOL intend to donate significant sums of money to the "Legalize" association which deals with the promotion of legalization in Israel. The company announced that it will donate 5% of all revenues from the sale of its cannabis from 2 series ("Adam and Eve" and "Elements") .

Kfir Avraham, CEO of BOL Pharma, emphasized that the company supports the implementation of full cannabis legalization like many other countries such as Canada and the United States, and that it has been proven that such a move has the potential to reduce the use of legal addictive substances such as painkillers, alcohol and nicotine.

In order to increase the circulation of the campaign, BOL Pharma intends to try to recruit pharmacies to the effort as well, which will present publications detailing to customers the reasons for promoting legalization in Israel, and why this cause is so important.

"Our goal is to promote full legalization and bring about the liberation of the cannabis plant," explains Avraham in an interview with the Israeli "Cannabis" magazine. "Patients today are imprisoned in an irrational reality with limited access to the treatment they require on a daily basis. In addition, legalization will significantly help to eradicate the thriving black-market industry of cannabis that contributes to the enrichment of criminals instead of helping the country's economy."

According to Avraham, "Bol Pharma, as one of the oldest companies in the Israeli cannabis industry, considers it of utmost importance to launch a campaign that clearly and visibly conveys the message of legalization. "The time has come for the leading cannabis companies to stop sitting on the fence and unequivocally express their support for legalization."

It is worth noting that the medical cannabis companies in Israel have a clear commercial interest in promoting legalization (which will open up the possibility of selling cannabis to the entire adult population in the country and not only to those with a medical certificate), but nevertheless the move receives support and blessings from Israeli legalization activists and consumers, and it will be interesting to see what will be the impact of such a motion - will more cannabis companies in Israel join the trend?