It smelled like weed as I walked past a grassy, tree-shaded area recently near a water fountain and benches at Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, an affiliate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I smirked; the campus atmosphere was quiet and studious, but it seemed even the world’s highest ranking academics like to get high.
Home to a modest medical marijuana program that serves some 40,000 patients, Israel is nonetheless leading the world in cannabis research and, not to mention, cannabis consumption—nearly 30% of the country’s population has tried the stuff in the past year. While cannabis is decriminalized for an amount limited to personal use, weed is as integral to the social fabric here as it is back home in America—but more on that later.