The district pharmacist of the Health Ministry, Abraham Turnau, claims he has been reliably informed that El Fatah, the largest of the Palestinian organizations, is trying to spread the use of hashish through Israel to undermine the nation’s health. Turnau, lecturing at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, said the Fatah sometimes supplied hashish without charge to speed up its infiltration. He said the names of 12,000 narcotics addicts in Israel were known to the authorities but that the actual total is an estimated 36,000-48,000. Unlike addicts in other countries, those in Israel use only hashish. In its pure form it is not habit-forming, but pushers often add opium, making the mixture addictive, the pharmacist noted. The Knesset passed today an amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Law which provides stiffer penalties for narcotics dealers. The amendment also empowers the Minister of Health to add any drug he sees fit to the list of prohibited drugs. For the first time, LSD was declared illegal.
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