Back to school in Sderot – Help!!

Today I had a conversation that moved me from complaining to proposing. Doesn’t happen (not to me at least) every day or even every year.

I have been writing several times about the absurd (Yiddish: Chelm) situation in Israel where CBD is legal to buy but no one can sell it. My experience suggests that the current government uses Customs confiscations to drive anyone trying to import and sell CBD out of business. As a physician, I cannot refer children anymore to providers whose ability to ensure continuity of care is regualrly interrupted by confiscations FOR MONTHS. This was not the case under the previous government that legalized CBD but started THE DAY the current government took the reins. Anyone is welcome to speculate what lays behind this – that was my old useless direction.

New idea: How about a network of Israelis living abroad where CBD is purchased online or in a nearby store with ease. The children of Sderot could connect with the network and have the product mailed to them, all perfectly legal and can outflank our strange and unique situation. Folks in the network could arrange reimbursement, or groups could choose to subsidize the treatment as TSEDAKAH (which in Israel has come to mean doing what the government should do but won’t).

As I have written many times, children in Sderot haven’t slept for two years, and the Gaza war noises are about to increase today. They cannot concentrate, are unhappy and explosive, and after nearly two years, their development is being hampered. The few dozen kids I have managed to get to try CBD (overcoming raised eyebrows of physicians poisoned against the plant for decades) show promising results. If we can provide CBD for more kids, perhaps someone out there would want to use a phone app to collect data on responses.

I would welcome all ideas at aflashman@gmail.com.

And I thank the woman who sparked this idea in a phone call today!