The Ministerial Law Committee has backed a bill proposed by Minister of Public Security Gilad Edan seeking to lighten the criminality of using recreational marijuana.

The bill stipulates that a first-time offender confessing to smoking would receive a NIS 1000 fine, but no threat of imprisonment as the law is today. A second offense would result in doubling the fine and a third time, probation. There would only be an arrest after a fourth violation in public, which includes possession. These new rules apply to one using it for personal use and not to buying and selling, which remain illegal.

The minister’s recommendations are the result of a committee which spent a year studying the matter.

Many view the bill as too little, but a step in the right direction towards legalizing marijuana for personal use.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)