Cannabis legalization set to be Bennett’s next coalition battle
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s governing coalition is set to face new challenges on Wednesday, the first day of voting on bills submitted by individual MKs since the government was formed a month ago.
Until now, all the bills voted on were governmental legislation. Bennett’s narrow coalition will try to pass all bills submitted by coalition MKs and defeat all bills submitted by the opposition, regardless of their content.
The first test is expected to be a bill advanced on Sunday by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation that would decriminalize the possession of up to 50 gr. of cannabis or 15 cannabis seeds for individual recreational use and reclassify cannabidiol (CBD) as a food additive.
The bill has the support of every party in the coalition except for Ra’am (United Arab List), which was undecided on Tuesday, despite agreements reached with cabinet secretary Shalom Shlomo that resolved a coalition crisis with the party on Sunday.
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Without Ra’am, the coalition may need to draft support in the Joint List, a move that angered Ra’am when it happened last week.
Asked if there will be a problem passing the bill, Coalition Chairwoman Idit Silman (Yamina) said “everything will be alright.”
The law would change the current fining system for cannabis use in public. While users now face fines for firsttime offenses of NIS 1,000 and second-time offenses of NIS 2,000 before criminal charges are issued, the new law would lower the fines to NIS 500 and eliminate the option to criminalize the user.
If someone is found to possess over 50 gr. of cannabis in public, but they can prove that it is meant for their own personal use, they will receive a fine of NIS 2,000 and avoid criminal charges.
While this legislation would still prevent recreational cannabis shops from opening up, the new government sees decriminalization as a necessary first step while they prepare the much more complex
legislation needed to create a framework for a legal, recreational cannabis market.
The bill would also allow people to appeal to the attorney-general to retroactively void any criminal records they may have as a result of recreational cannabis use, and reclassify CBD as a food additive.
The coalition is expected to vote against a bill proposed by Likud MK Avi Dichter and Religious Zionist Party MK Orit Struck that would remove the citizenship of a terrorist who receives a stipend from the Palestinian Authority. When the bill was proposed, 19 MKs in the current coalition cosponsored it, including Silman and Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope).
Devora Gonen of the organization Choosing Life, whose son was murdered in a terrorist attack in Lod, said she expected all MKs who backed the bill to vote for it.
“This is not a bill of the opposition but a bill that had wide support within the coalition just two months ago,” Gonen said. “This is the most logical bill in the world. If the government cannot pass a bill that most of its ministers signed, what can they do?”
But Silman said she saw it differently. She said the Likud blocked the passage of the citizenship bill that they passed recently, and there was no reason for the coalition parties to treat the Likud any better.
“I will see what they did with the citizenship bill and learn from them,” she said. “They can’t call themselves Right-wing and ask us to vote for right-wing bills after they voted against the citizenship bill.”
Idan Zonshine contributed to this report.