Last year, doctors prescribed the herb to about 25,000 patients suffering from cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress and degenerative diseases.
The purpose is not to cure them but to alleviate their symptoms.
The use of cannabis in medicine divides doctors around issues of addiction and behavioural problems such as aggression.
Nevertheless, it has long been known to revive lost appetite and to help in treating sleep disorders, anxiety and inflammation, its supporters say.
They say much research remains to be done but it is advancing faster in Israel, where authorities allow human clinical trials, than in many other countries.
Entrepreneurs, investors and researchers are increasingly entering the business and searching for the holy grail of medicinal marijuana: a purified form of the drug with minimal side-effects and which can be administered in accurate doses.
Inside the fortified premises of BOL (Breath Of Life) Pharma are laboratories and greenhouses, with each plant monitored by software that remotely controls its biochemical parameters.
Growing cannabis for medical use demands careful supervision of active ingredients such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which gives recreational users their high but is not recommended for all patients, particularly children.
"With the support of the (health) ministry, which has always had a pioneering attitude to this issue, we have built up expertise in clinical trials and we can share it with companies in the United States and Europe," said Gedo.
He cites initial results of trials on patients with Crohn's disease, which is characterised by chronic inflammation of the intestine, diarrhoea and recurrent abdominal pain.