A New York-based Jewish anti-drug abuse program is warning the synthetic marijuana known as K2 has become a deadly threat.

Dozens of people collapsed in Brooklyn Tuesday after ingesting a bad batch of K2 synthetic marijuana.

“K2” is synthetic marijuana.

News stations across the United States reported the incident, which made national headlines since the use of K2 is rising in the country.

“K2 is an extremely dangerous drug,” Rabbi Yaacov Behrman told JewishPress.com in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

The director of Operation Survival, a project of the Brooklyn-based National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE), Behrman said “K2” is a term used to refer to “any number of chemicals designed to mimic the effects of marijuana.

“But because there is no precise formulation, its effects are highly unpredictable,” he said. “The behavior resulting from K2 use can range from mild aggressiveness to extreme violence. Other effects can range from nausea to kidney failure and even death.”

The affected users who collapsed on Tuesday were all rushed to local emergency rooms; several were reported in critical condition.

“One of the reasons for K2’s surge in popularity is that it doesn’t show up in drug testing,” Behrman explained.

“Our project, Operation Survival, is working with community educators and impact activists to prevent a recurrence of Tuesday’s incident.

“It is our collective responsibility to see to it that our community members are safe from this frightening epidemic.”

The project is aimed at education and prevention of substance abuse and overdose in the Jewish community, as well as the community at large.

Based on an intelligence tip, Israel Police joined IDF soldiers in an operation overnight to seize a major drug and arms cache of military materials being held by Palestinian Authority Arab suspects.

Drug haul containing large quantities of hashish and Nice Guy seized by IDF and Border Guard Police.

The troops enter the Samaria village of Jelazoun together with the IDF Binyamin Regional Brigade and seized the following:

1 M-16 assault rifle, with magazine 2 loaded Carl Gustav assault rifles 1 vest complete with M-16 cartridges M-16 weapons parts 1 gas pistol Hundreds of 9mm bullets Stolen vehicles 6 pallets of hashish 2 bags of Nice Guy synthetic marijuana, plus bags for dividing it into portions 1 bag of hundreds of 10-shekel coins 2 security safes with thousands of shekels

A Arab suspect from Jelazoun was arrested and transferred to security personnel for questioning at the Binyamin District Police station.

Terrorist organizations often use illicit drug sales to fund their operations. They also use some of the more sedative substances to aid operatives prior to a suicide attack mission and to quell a hostage during an abduction raid.

It will probably be a long time before Israelis see medical cannabis on the shelves of their pharmacies — if ever — but many of their doctors are likely to be trained and certified in prescribing the drug as a new medication within the next several weeks.

Two main objectives set by Health Minister Yaacov Litzman towards the goal of making the product more available to Israeli patients were reached on Thursday.

The sale of medical cannabis to pharmacies is going to become easier, and certification and permits for doctors to prescribe the product for their patients will also be eased.

In fact, the accreditation of doctors for prescribing the plant as a treatment is only weeks away, according to a report posted Thursday by Galei Tzahal Army Radio.

The Israel Medical Association is providing a two-day training program in cooperation with the Health Ministry to prepare doctors across a range of specialties for accreditation in the use of the drug as a treatment.

“Physicians who want to learn how to treat with cannabis will learn when to prescribe it and when not to,” Dr. Leonid Eidelman told the radio station.

The training will be led by teams from the Israel Medical Association and the medical cannabis unit at the Ministry of Health, headed by Dr. Michael Dor.

(JNi.media) The Palestinian Authority’s Hebron police officials on Monday morning set fire to about 3 tons of Marijuana valued at $50 million, seized in an operation over the past few months, Palestinian Authority media sources reported Tuesday.

Hebron governor Kamal Ahmed praised the efforts of his police force, and called for joint efforts against the “drug disease” which, according to Ahmed, is part of the Israeli occupation’s attempts to destabilize the Palestinian society.

Raid Dudin, who heads the PA’s Hebron Police Department drug fighting unit, said the marijuana that was destroyed was “30 times stronger” than regular marijuana, thanks to the efforts of “an Israeli scientist” who improved the species.

Dudin did not specify which method was used to determine the strength of the marijuana.

Israeli police have also detected a rise in the cultivation of marijuana in Judea and Samaria in recent years. Police investigators have uncovered a number of large marijuana production labs in those areas, as well as small labs used by residents for private consumption. The police attribute the increase to the shortages across the country.

Israelis soon will be able to take a doctor’s prescription for marijuana to the local pharmacy, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman said Monday.

He noted that pharmacies issue prescriptions for other drugs that are considered narcotics and that procedures are well-supervised. A case in point is Ritalin. A person wanting to fill a prescription for the drug, which when ground up and sniffed can be extremely dangerous, has to wait at the counter until the pharmacist opens the safe.

“I will fight an aggressive war not to allow this to get out of control,” said Litzman, who in effect is the Health Minster, a title he does not accept because the Hareidi Yehadut Torah (United Torah Judaism) party does not want to be part of a “Zionist” Cabinet.

He said that making marijuana available at pharmacies awaits court approval concerning tenders for growers of “grass.”

Litzman said that there procedures overseeing prescriptions for marijuana will be issued either through law or administrative orders.

Health Ministry Prof. Boaz Lev added that officials will make it possible for more doctors to be able to prescribe marijuana for medicinal use.

Outgoing Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino has been discussing with a Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Knesset Member major changes in the laws concerning the use of marijuana.

MK Yinon Magal freely says he has smoked grass and wants to change the laws that ban marijuana, except for medical uses.

Israel has one of the highest rates in the West when it comes to issuing permits to use marijuana for medical purposes. Danino noted that the number has grown from only 400 years ago to 20,000 today.

He was quoted by the Hebrew-language free newspaper Yisrael HaYom as saying during a speech at the Beersheba and Negev Trade Bureau:

What will eventually happen here is that anyone with money will be able to get a permit, and anyone who doesn’t have money will be trying to get [cannabis] on the streets. Things are happening in the world, so we can’t stick our heads in the sand. We need to deal with this issue\

Throughout the world, this has been a method of making [cannabis] legal. In California you can walk around in plenty of places and see signs offering a fake permit for medical marijuana for $50. We in Israel don’t want that. Because if we really want to change the law and decriminalize [cannabis] use, or make some drugs legal, let’s do it properly.

It is not a foregone conclusion that marijuana is good medicine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated, “Marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.”

The Anti-Drug Authority is not thrilled over Danino’s readiness to re-examine the laws.

Eitan Gorni, acting director of the Israel Anti-Drug Authority said that “the police commissioner’s recent statements are beyond the authority and responsibility of the police to make,” according to Haaretz.

The WeedBlog.com pro-marijuana website wrote:

How cool would it be if Mr. Danino joined Law Enforcement against Prohibition? Get this guy an application maybe? Anyhow, this is great news. Anytime a sitting leader of a law enforcement agency says that he or she wants to have a candid discussion about how to improve marijuana laws, that’s a good thing.

Endless studies have been carried without conclusive evidence whether smoking marijuana leads to getting hooked on harder drugs, but there also are moral implications because smoking marijuana often is accompanied by cult rituals that lead to idleness.

It will be interesting to hear what rabbis in Israel have to say on the issue. Many rabbis have ruled that smoking cigarettes is not “kosher” because although it does not violate dietary laws, it is dangerous to the health.

Rabbi Moshe Elefant, of the Orthodox Union’s kosher certification agency said earlier this year that the OU “would not have a problem certifying” medical marijuana, but most rabbis frown on smoking grass for “recreational” use.

It sounds “cool” to make it legal for people to smoke pot, but when the grass starts growing too high, it is a good hiding place for snakes.

Israel police have arrested a pizza owner for delivering a pizza with artificial marijuana to two police officers who ordered it, and then vomited, according to Reuters

The policemen had asked for a pizza with “anything except oregano,” and the pizza owner said the cops sounded so “cool” that he figured a bit of “Mr. Nice Guy,” artificial grass, would be appreciated.

The delicacy landed the two police officers in the hospital after they threw up and suffered dizziness. Hospital tests revealed they had digested Mr. Nice Guy, which has been declared illegal in Israel after previous rules that allowed the substance.

Police intend to request a court order to shut down the pizzeria for being a danger to the public.