January 10, 2017, Updated January 8, 2017

A new university course on the use of medical cannabis is further establishing Israel’s long recognized status as a global leader in medical cannabis research and development.

The course – covering the history of the plant’s medicinal components, the current status of medical marijuana, its legal background and rulings, the active ingredients in the drug, clinical uses, cannabis farming, and technologies used to provide the crop – is being taught at the Ariel University.

“The demand for this course was very high and due to a lack of space, dozens of students were rejected. Altogether, 117 students are participating in the course,” Dr. Michael Dor, a senior lecturer at Ariel University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, said in a statement.

The course is designed for students in the health field who have at least one year of study.

In March last year, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced its new Multidisciplinary Center on Cannabinoid Research at the second annual CannaTech conference.

Hebrew University Prof. Raphael Mechoulam put Israel on the medical marijuana map  for his early groundbreaking research in isolating the active compound from cannabis, THC, and inspired generations of researchers in several countries.

Mechoulam says Israelis have joint research efforts underway with Canada, the US, Spain and Italy.

“Israel’s role is to lead the research, validate the data and build a methodology behind getting that data,” Saul Kaye, CEO of iCAN and CannaTech, told ISRAEL21c.

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