Legalisation of cannabis for medical use could turn out to be a boost for the island’s business community and economy, claims an international campaigner.

Saul Kaye, chief executive and founder of iCan [Israel Cannabis] believes there are potentially thousands of patients in the island who might benefit from taking cannabis for conditions such as chronic pain and sleep problems.

But in addition to that he believes if the island acts quickly then it could be at the vanguard of a growing industry.

He said: ’If you [the island] move quickly enough you will have an advantage for a very long time.’

He said that in his opinion it was not a question of if medicinal cannabis will be introduced but rather when.

He said: ’The cat is out of the bag and we are not putting it back in.’

Mr Kaye was in the island to address the sixth annual Manx Biomed conference at the Broadway Cinema at the Villa Marina.

Mr Kaye was accompanied by Canadian Chris Bolton, director of regulatory affairs for a company called TheraCann.

The packed audience heard that the island’s Department of Health and Social Care is preparing consultation on the regulation of hemp and medicinal cannabis.

Earlier this year the Isle of Man government set up a working party to examine the issue.

In the UK the drug was recently legalised and doctors have already started issuing prescriptions there.

Mr Kaye told the conference Israel was doing more research than anywhere else in the world.

He introduced himself to the audience in this way: ’I am known around the world as the ’’Pope of Dope’’.

’This is now a matter of when and not if any more.

’Here in the Isle of Man you are coming to a unique point of time when you will decide on this. You see what is going on around the world.

’Canada has legalised fully and there is a domino effect going on around the world.

’South Korea is the latest nation to medicalise cannabis. African nations are on the way and Latin America is close behind.

’Israel is a unique place. We are known as the innovation nation, the start-up nation and now the spark-up nation.

’We encourage innovation in a really unique way. We don’t have any natural resources in a very small country and our resource has become our brain.’

The gathering heard that New Zealand was in a similar position to the Isle of Man in examining the issue.

Mr Kaye added the aim of his company, iCAN, is that every person in the world has access to medical-grade cannabis.

And iCan was building a portfolio of innovative companies across the entire global cannabis ecosystem.

Mr Kaye said there are currently 40,000 patients in Israel receiving cannabis for medicinal use.

’They are incredibly sick people. We are giving it to sick people with good health outcomes at the end of the day.

’When we talk about patients we are talking about diseases that everybody is suffering from.

’Mostly pain and sleep, those are the two things cannabis can really help with.

People treated with cannabis have had chronic diseases and people with conditions including cancer, Parkinson’s Disease and epilepsy have been treated .

Mr Kaye said that in the island there are potentially ’up to 10,000 patients in the Isle of Man that can benefit from cannabis right now’.

Mr Kaye, who said he has consulted with governments around the world, said : ’So why do medical cannabis in the Isle of Man?

’You do have an ageing population bearing the cost of healthcare.

’You have a highly educated workforce, you are in food and beverage, aerospace, manufacturing, these are all things done to high standards.

’Cannabis, when it is grown and processed to high standards, is going to have a market across the world.

’You don’t however have a great climate [in the island] to grow cannabis in.

’It’s cold and it rains but you can offset that with good water sources and clean natural land that hasn’t been infected by pesticides, so in that respect youhave an advantage.’

The island was also known for its banking and insurance industries and he said banking and tax structures were ’incredibly important’.

He believes there is a ’very good reason for the Isle of Man to come aboard’ through its financial services industry.

’We hope that you will.

’The government structure, being a Crown Dependency with the ability to move quickly and to make your own laws independent of the UK puts you in a unique point in time.’

Speaking later to Business News Mr Kaye said: ’It is time for a new approach to cannabis.’

Mr Kaye believes that the island has ’the ability to legislate quickly which gives you an advantage over the rest of the world.

’If you are able to capture that advantage then you are able to position yourselves in the world as a leader of and an exporter of cannabis.

’You have to capture that advantage.’

He predicted: ’Every one of our parents will be using cannabis in 10 years.’

’Parents that are sufferring from pain, kids that are suffering from epilepsy, those are the patients that we are ultimately treating.’

A show of hands at the end of the talk resulted in a majority of people approving the idea of medicinal cannabis.