I have a lot of friends in the marijuana industry and activism movement that are Jewish. I am not Jewish, but I have always respected the Jewish religion and culture. One of my Jewish friends text me a link while I was at work yesterday which talked about the likelihood of some medical marijuana products in New York getting certified as being kosher. Per the Jewish Daily Forward:
Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher certification agency, said he has held “preliminary discussions” with several companies interested in obtaining a kosher seal of approval for medical marijuana.
The move comes as legalization of cannabis for medicinal and recreational purposes spreads across the country, with many of the leading pro-legalization activists, philanthropists and entrepreneurs drawn from the Jewish community.
Marijuana is a plant and therefore kosher certification is not necessary for the cannabis itself. But in New York State, where companies are vying for up to five licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana, patients will not be allowed to smoke pot, so they will have to ingest it in other ways — such as capsules, food or drinks, which will require kosher certification for Orthodox patients.
I’d imagine that this will spread beyond New York. There are Jewish medical marijuana patients all over the United States, and it’s only logical that they will be looking for kosher medical marijuana products. From what it sounds like though, kosher certification won’t be coming to the recreational marijuana industry anytime soon.
