Israel's medical cannabis programme is one of the oldest in the world, and its rules have changed repeatedly over three decades. This timeline tracks the milestones that shaped it — useful context for patients, operators and anyone trying to understand why the system looks the way it does in 2026.
This guide is general information, not legal or medical advice. For current rules, consult the Israeli Ministry of Health.
1992 — The programme begins
Israel granted its first medical cannabis approvals in 1992, establishing one of the earliest state-sanctioned medical cannabis frameworks anywhere (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2025). For the first two decades the programme was small and tightly controlled, serving a limited number of patients.
2011–2019 — Rapid growth
Patient numbers climbed steadily as indications broadened and access widened. Active licences grew from 3,097 in 2011 toward the tens of thousands, driven by expanded recognised conditions and broader pharmacy access (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2025). This period established cannabis as a mainstream part of Israeli care rather than a fringe treatment.
2019 — Per-product pricing
In 2019, the Ministry scrapped the old flat-rate model — under which patients paid a fixed monthly price regardless of quantity — in favour of a market-based, per-product pricing system sold through pharmacies (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2025). The shift reshaped what patients pay; see our guide on how much medical cannabis costs for the consequences.
2020 — Decentralised prescribing
In 2020, prescribing authority began to decentralise, allowing trained physicians beyond the central Medical Cannabis Unit to prescribe — an important step toward treating cannabis like other medicines (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2025).
January 2024 — The HMO reform and a new high
The most consequential recent change. A reform moving much of the programme into the public health funds (HMOs) coincided with the end of the "last resort" requirement, letting specialists prescribe cannabis at their discretion rather than only after all else failed (Times of Israel). Active licences reached 140,483 in January 2024 — a more than 4,400% rise from 2011 (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2025).
2024–2025 — The post-reform dip
Counter-intuitively, the move into the HMOs brought stricter administrative gatekeeping for some patients, and the national count declined about 7.5% to 129,900 by March 2025 (Journal of Cannabis Research, 2025). The reform that was meant to mainstream cannabis also, in the short term, made renewal harder for some.
December 2025 — Specialist authority expanded
Rules taking effect in December 2025 further widened specialists' authority to prescribe, continuing the long arc away from centralised, last-resort gatekeeping toward a conventional prescription model.
May 2026 — A record patient count, and the year's biggest regulatory shock
The dip did not hold. Health Ministry figures for May 2026 put the licensed patient population at an all-time high of 143,900 — above the January 2024 level, resuming growth after a stretch of stagnation (Cannabis Magazine, 12 July 2026). On the current numbers the 2024–25 contraction reads as an administrative interruption rather than a ceiling.
The same month produced the most consequential regulatory event of the year — and then reversed it within three days. On 3 May 2026, a special Health Ministry committee chaired by Dr. Gilad Bodenheimer, head of the ministry's mental health division, recommended ending the use and marketing of smokable medical cannabis within three years, moving dispensing into the health funds for closer monitoring, and applying stricter clinical oversight — including greater caution in treating post-trauma patients, on the committee's view that long-term harm is better established than benefit in that group (Times of Israel, 4 May 2026).
On 6 May 2026, Health Minister Haim Katz froze the recommendations, instructing Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov to halt all activity related to implementing them. Katz said he was "not sufficiently convinced that there is justification for implementing the recommendations, given the possible harm to patients" (Ynetnews, 6 May 2026). Nothing the committee proposed is in force: the phase-out stands frozen rather than enacted — the full account is in is Israel banning smoked medical cannabis?.
The pattern
Across three decades the direction is consistent — broader access, more prescribers, and a gradual normalisation of cannabis as medicine — punctuated by administrative resets that occasionally tighten the system even as they modernise it. The two unresolved fights heading into 2026, over import tariffs and a proposed smokable-cannabis phase-out, are covered in our Regulation hub. For the recreational side of the story, see will Israel legalise recreational cannabis?
Compiled and reviewed by Tamar Levin, Editor. Sources are linked inline. This guide is informational and is not medical or legal advice; consult a licensed physician about your own treatment.
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