Even if we see serious consequences, an increase in addicts, and depression and deterioration in severe drugs, we cannot close the stable after the horses run away.

• Drug seizure by police

The unity government, which I am a supporter of, has finally reached almost complete agreement on one issue - the legalization of cannabis in Israel.

And everyone is happy. The younger generation is happy.

In practice, he has already decided that legalization and the young people have smoking everywhere, at weddings, in cafes and even in Torah and Hasidic classes. Stock traders are happy, and with them all kinds of corporate incumbents, and tomorrow, when there are big increases in the Israeli cannabis bubble, they will be delighted. 

And I want to make an unpopular position - I oppose legalization. I don't understand where we're running. Very few places in the world have cumulative experience in this regard, and only one thing is clear - what is allowed will no longer be refunded. Even if we find that the consequences are big and severe, even if we discover in two or three years that there is an increase in the number of addicts and a depression and deterioration in severe drugs, we cannot close the stable after the horses run away.

I am a great follower of individual freedoms. I want freedom of religion, state, gender, and especially free economy. We need these important freedoms, but the choice to begin the issue of individual liberty from cannabis is incompetent. It is not certain whether the human right to injure himself is the first right the state has to sanctify.

I oppose legalization because I fear addictions and the strong mishap of graduates to teenagers, and the next step - children. In my years as chairman of the community center, I learned that the topic of drugs is relevant to everyone. It is relevant in Judea and Samaria. It is relevant in Tel Aviv. In Beitar Illit and Jerusalem, a girl and Balkia, in Ramat Hasharon and Ramat Gan.

At Simchat Torah, my 16-year-old daughter told me about a synagogue in Tel Aviv that during a visit with her sons from Bnei Akiva, they found it difficult to breathe because of the strong smell of worshipers sitting outside a synagogue and smoking (allowed to smoke) grass. I realized that in a few years, when we look in wonder at Purim, anxious boys with grass will remember where it started. It always starts with social smoking and continues elsewhere, and from there comes various addictions. 

I worry about tourism of young people and youth from places where cannabis is not allowed to Israel, because Israel is a cool place, and Tel Aviv is a fun city and does not need a visa and you can smoke free cannabis, so why not. And yes, I know it's limited to 21, I want to see the cop who can distinguish the 18-year-old from the 21-year-old, and I know that no police officer will approach or enforce. 

Do we want to be a light to Gentiles and a startup nation, or to be the fear of the world? In my people I sit. In the evening runs in the city of Tel Aviv I smell the sweet smell everywhere. In my workplaces I sometimes smell the good smell in the smoking corner at the end of the day. So maybe I'm conservative or old-fashioned, but did we wonder if smoking cannabis would lead to meaningful service? For in-depth study? For important scientific inventions? For great social work? Or will it lead to distancing, escape, illusion? 

How many Nobel laureates and brides or smart students and students have we seen cannabis smokers? Could it be a choice to escape instead of dealing? Do we want our models to be people who have opened meaningful companies to the world, such as Mobilai and Melanox, Naxer and Urmed, or is the model cannabis companies? 

Do we want to make Israel a power of medical device, autonomous vehicle and cyber, or do we want to become the center of cannabis? For what purpose? I watch with astonishment at conservative people, including very religious people, who sometimes criticize me for excess openness, inclusion and equality, and suddenly they run to be some of the world's first supporters of legalization almost without scrutiny. 

What's burning? Where did the urgency of this issue come from? Is it existential? It's impossible without it? Is it part of a personal identity of something or just a fashion? 

The elected officials on the left and right, religious as secular, put their finger outside, feel the wind blowing and dare not speak against the blowing wind. Our children will probably pay the price.