Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Israeli Medical Marijuana Know-How On Display At Cannatech

It was a “high-dea” that brought Garyn Angel to Israel, he said. Angel, a Florida businessman, created Magical Butter, a machine that extracts marijuana and other botanicals into butters and oils.

His invention, which looks like a large silver kettle, was on display in Tel Aviv in front of a room full of doctors, investors and entrepreneurs at Cannatech, an annual conference of medical marijuana innovation in Israel’s White City on March 20 to 22.

As Angel threw out T-shirts and bright green oven mitts, he advised the crowd to “see what it’s like to live infused,” which the audience members would get to do as soon as lunchtime rolled around when Angel promised to distribute samples of pot-laced salad dressing, barbecue sauce and hot sauce.

Cannatech’s participants traveled from far and wide to attend the three-day conference, paying between $600 and $1,600 per ticket to hear from medical marijuana’s leading lights.

Israel is trailblazer in the medical marijuana industry. While doctors in the United States face bureaucratic hurdles to studying the herb, Israeli researchers are conducting the first clinical studies to test marijuana for a range of ailments, such as autism. In the coming months, Israel is poised to approve medical marijuana for export, which could bring in $1 billion in the next two years, according to estimates of industry experts.

Cannatech’s international attendees came to learn from Israeli experts, swap ideas, and bring medical marijuana know-how back home.

The conference featured Israeli policy makers, like Likud parliament member Sharren Haskel, an advocate of decriminalization and Yuval Landschaft, the director of the medical cannabis unit at the Israeli Ministry of Health.

It also showcased Israeli innovation. Netafim, the Israeli company that invented drip irrigation, one of Israel’s biggest “hasbara” or public relations talking points, gave a presentation on the challenges of growing cannabis.

International companies like Magical Butter and Leaf, based in Colorado, which created the first smart-phone controlled grow system, exhibited their wares.

At the close of the conference, Cannatech guests were treated to a performance by Hadag Nahash, an Israeli hiphop group that called for marijuana legalization with its 2014 collaboration with Infected Mushroom, “Legal Eyes.”

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.