Medical Marijuana Exports Get Approval From Israel Cabinet

(Bloomberg) -- The Israeli cabinet approved medical cannabis exports, opening up a new market for producers.

The cabinet move is expected to lead to increased investment in agriculture, research and production and to create new jobs, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. Officials have estimated that exports could bring in as much as 1 billion shekels ($273 million) a year in tax revenue.

“The medical-cannabis revolution gets underway,” Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said in a tweet. The move “will bring hundreds of millions to the nation’s coffers and will strengthen Israeli agriculture and technology.”

Cannabis-related companies initially rose on the news, then plunged. Shares of InterCure Ltd., a medical-cannabis company that has former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as chairman, gained as much as 21 percent after the approval, then fell sharply to end the day down 13 percent. Medivie Therapeutic Ltd., which at one point was up 5.3 percent, closed down 11 percent.

--With assistance from Yaacov Benmeleh.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Michael S. Arnold

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