PROF. RAPHAEL MECHOULAM
When Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) organic chemist Prof. Raphael Mechoulam was investigating cannabis (marijuana) in the 1960s, it was regarded as a psychoactive drug for getting high but no medical benefits. Yet it so intrigued the Bulgarian-born researcher that he spent his academic life studying it and became a leading expert on medical cannabis.
Working in his lab for many years after his official retirement, Mechoulam has died at the age of 92. “Most of the human and scientific knowledge about cannabis was accumulated thanks to Prof. Mechoulam,” HU president Asher Cohen said. “He paved the way for groundbreaking studies and initiated scientific cooperation between researchers around the world. Mechoulam was a sharp-minded and charismatic pioneer.”
He and his research team isolated Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolc (CBD), an active ingredient that offers a variety of medicinal benefits including pain relief and THC, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana.
Today, medical cannabis grown and processed without the psychoactive effects has been formulated to provide symptom relief without the intoxicating, mood-altering effects connected to recreational use of marijuana. It is sold in pharmacies around Israel, with over 110,000 license holders according to the Israeli Medical Cannabis Agency (IMCA), operating under the auspices of the Health Ministry.
It is not only smoked but available in the form of liquid oil, powder, dried leaves and more. The drug is given to relieve not only severe and chronic pain, but also Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and muscle spasms, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). HIV/AIDS, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy and seizures, glaucoma, severe nausea or vomiting caused by cancer treatment. It has been prescribed even in a cocktail of low-dose-THC and high-dose of CBD as an effective treatment option for managing symptoms associated with autism, leading to a better quality of life for both the patient and the caregivers.But when Mechoulam sought to obtain samples, he carried five kilos of “superb, smuggled Lebanese hashish” on a bus from Tel Aviv to Rehovot in the hope that he would not be apprehended. Still, cannabis research was easier to conduct in Israel than the more-restrictive US.
His life
He was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in November, 1930, the son of a doctor and hospital director and a mother from a wealthy Jewish family. father was subsequently sent to a concentration camp, which he survived. His father was taken by the Nazis to a concentration camp, and after Communists took over parts of Bulgaria, he and his family emigrated to Israel in 1949, by which time Mechoulam earned a degree in chemical engineering.
After his aliya, he earned a master’s degree from HU in biochemistry, followed by writing a thesis on steroid chemistry to earn a doctorate at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. After two years of postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller Institute in Manhattan, he returned to the Weizmann Institute for five years and then returned to HU, where in 1972 he became professor and the Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry three years later. He was named by HU as rector and then pro-rector, posts he filled for a total of six years.
In 1994, he was elected a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and was one of the founding members of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines.
His 90th birthday was marked at a four-day symposium during 31st International Cannabis Research Symposium that Mechoulam helped to establish and was held in Jerusalem for the first time.
Mechoulam received a large number of significant honors and awards. Twenty-three years ago, he was awarded the Israel Prize in Exact Sciences – Chemistry and more recently, the Harvey Prize of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
H/T: www.jpost.com
