7 incredible new things the world can thank Israel for

Andrew Tobin

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Israeli actress Gal Gadot at a screening for the film “Keeping Up With The Joneses” at The London Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., Oct. 20, 2016. (Araya Diaz/WireImage/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – To build a Jewish state in the Middle East, Israelis had to be innovators.

Some of what they’ve come up with has been used mostly by their fellow citizens — think Hebrew slang, Bamba snacks and the Iron Dome missile defense system — at least so far.

But many other Israeli creations have changed the world: drip irrigation, the USB flash drive and actress Natalie Portman, among them.

Ahead of Yom Haatzmaut — Israel’s Independence Day, to be celebrated on May 2 — here are some incredible things Israel gave the world this year, its 69th year of independence.

A weed inhaler

Syqe Medical’s cannabis inhaler (Courtesy of Syqe Medical)

Puff, puff, pass the inhaler.

In November, the Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva announced it would begin marketing a medical cannabis inhaler in Israel that delivers precise doses of the drug. Rambam Hospital in Haifa had already been using the device for more than a year, making it the first medical center in the world to prescribe cannabis as a standard medical treatment.

Perry Davidson, the founder and CEO of Syqe Medical, which developed the inhaler, said his company plans eventually to offer it around the world.

“Israel is clearly just the start,” he told Bloomberg. “We expect to be approved for use in other countries in due course. The U.S., as the biggest medical cannabis market, is an obvious target.”

The inhaler is far from Israel’s first marijuana-related innovation. In 1964, Raphael Mechoulan, a chemist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discovered tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis. He went on to identify the endocannabinoid system upon which cannabinoids act on the body.

Last summer, the government approved a plan by Health Minister Yaakov Litzman to relax some requirements for obtaining medical cannabis. And in March, it decriminalized recreational marijuana use.

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read more: 7 incredible new things…

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