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But doctors are responsible, and they won\u2019t just hand out fentanyl in large quantities. So that person will try to get prescriptions from different doctors, and then go to the emergency room claiming they are going crazy from pain and need medication immediately. And later they will look for other, less legitimate channels to obtain the drug. Add to that the ongoing state of fight-or-flight we are in, and the high prevalence of people dealing with post-trauma who are looking for immediate relief, and you get a thriving black market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another popular category on Telegram, as mentioned, is ADHD medications. Here is a conversation we had this week with a channel called \u201cThe Pharmacist\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat mg do you need?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome pick it up for NIS 750 ($239), bro. Party. Petah Tikva area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Really? I\u2019ve never bought on Telegram.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be your first and your last.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you need to proceed?<\/p>\n
\u201cScreenshot of Facebook. Photo of ID. Video of you saying: \u2018Pharmacist, I\u2019d like to place an order,\u2019 and saying your phone number.\u201d<\/p>\n
In peacetime, peaks in demand for ADHD medications on Telegram are usually tied to exam periods in academia and major licensing tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people think it will turn them into Superman,\u201d says Hagai Shor, CEO of the Shor Tabachnik pharmacy chain. \u201cThey think that if they take the drug, they won\u2019t sleep for three or four days and will study with maximum focus. But that\u2019s not true. If you don\u2019t have attention issues, it won\u2019t turn you into Superman. It might not do anything for you at all, except cause side effects.\u201d<\/p>\n
But now there is war, no exams, no academic calendar, and still ADHD medications remain highly popular on Telegram.<\/p>\n
The reason lies in the nature of the current round of fighting, which is concentrated at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who don\u2019t sleep properly at night need something to wake them up during the day,\u201d says Yogev, referring especially to parents who are critically short on sleep but must continue working and caring for children throughout the day. \u201cThen they can\u2019t fall asleep at night, so they take sleeping pills. It becomes a vicious cycle. This is a phenomenon well known among people dealing with post-trauma, where using pills gives them a sense of control over the situation and their emotions. As if through medication they control their thoughts and feelings, and not the other way around. But it\u2019s not real, it\u2019s an illusion that creates detachment. Such a mechanism can lead to worsening post-traumatic symptoms and eventually to addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another group, probably much smaller, of buyers of ADHD drugs on Telegram are adults who do suffer from attention disorders but have not gone through the long, and often expensive, diagnostic process required to obtain a prescription.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have the patience or endurance to go through the procedures needed to get the medication,\u201d Shor explains, \u201cso they look for shortcuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
But ADHD medications are also popular among less \u201cnormative\u201d users: addicts who, under current conditions, use Ritalin and similar drugs as substitutes for cocaine, which has become harder to obtain during wartime.<\/p>\n
\u201cRitalin is definitely not cocaine,\u201d Shor says, \u201cbut someone who is addicted and currently has no supply of drugs might take Ritalin to ease withdrawal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, the group of sedatives and sleeping pills raises many questions.<\/p>\n
As noted, most of these drugs are widely available, easily prescribed by doctors, usually without the need for tests or specialist appointments, and generally very cheap. Some health funds even offer free delivery of medications, so there is no need to leave the protected room.<\/p>\n
Yet despite this, sleeping pills and sedatives remain highly popular on Telegram during the war.<\/p>\n
How simple is it? Here is a conversation we had this week with a Telegram channel called \u201cHealth World\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, how can I help?\u201d<\/p>\n
I need Stilnox for the northern Dead Sea \/ Ma\u2019ale Adumim area. Is that possible?<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019ale Adumim, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSealed box, 14 pills. It will cost you NIS 500 ($159), including delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stilnox is a popular sleep aid. The same box we were offered for NIS 500 ($159) costs about NIS 14 ($4.5) at Maccabi pharmacies.<\/p>\n
So why take the risk and order via Telegram?<\/p>\n
First, the war, especially the current one, is severely affecting Israelis\u2019 sleep.<\/p>\n
As early as December 2023, Prof. Shoham Choshen-Hillel, a decision-making researcher at the Hebrew University Business School, began studying the issue. Together with her husband, sleep researcher Prof. Alex Gileles-Hillel, and researcher Dr. Hadar Naftalovich, she conducted an ongoing sleep study on a representative sample of the population.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one had previously studied the impact of war on sleep on the home front,\u201d she says. \u201cThe only thing we found was a paper from England describing people who couldn\u2019t sleep in train stations during World War II. We discovered that war has a massive effect on civilian sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study compared Central Bureau of Statistics data showing about 7% clinical insomnia before the war with survey results from December 2023. The result: more than a threefold increase. About 25% of respondents were above the clinical threshold for insomnia.<\/p>\n
In June of last year, during another military operation, insomnia reached 41% of the population, \u201cthe highest ever,\u201d according to Choshen-Hillel. And few would be surprised if that record has already been broken in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
What about sleeping pills?
\n\u201cIn December 2023, 11% reported using sleeping pills, which is a lot. In routine times it\u2019s around 4%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Israelis are flocking to pharmacies to stock up on sleep and calming medications. According to David Papo, chairman of the Pharmacists Association, consumption of over-the-counter drugs in this category has risen by about 30% in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever there is security tension, there is an increase in medication use,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But Israelis already knew how to obtain drugs via Telegram before the war. When the war came, they simply expanded their shopping list.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese illegal Telegram channels have been peaking for years during exam periods,\u201d Papo says. \u201cEvery exam season there is a rise in consumption of amphetamines, Ritalin and similar drugs. We see it during law exams, medical licensing exams and other major certification tests.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, is it possible that people who entered these channels for exam drugs now return when they cannot sleep and don\u2019t have a prescription?<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than that. Someone who gets a legal prescription for 60 pills might use 20 and sell the rest. And everyone already knows who to turn to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it common for people to buy outside pharmacies?
\n\u201cYes. From conversations with patients, it\u2019s very common. But usually not for sleep or calming drugs, which are easily available. It\u2019s more common with weight-loss injections, where those who can\u2019t get a prescription turn to these channels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question remains: why are easily available drugs still so popular on the black market?<\/p>\n
There are, of course, \u201cnormative\u201d consumers who haven\u2019t slept for several nights and want immediate relief, regardless of price, without going through a doctor.<\/p>\n
But there is also another group: addicts, who during wartime often face shortages in street drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the black market, we\u2019ve found that these drugs are often sold as single pills, each for dozens of shekels,\u201d says Berkowitz.<\/p>\n
What do they do with them?
\n\u201cHeavy users and drug addicts crush the pills, which reduces liver absorption, and mix them with orthopedic pain medications like Lyrica, or with opioids like OxyContin or fentanyl, and with stimulants like Ritalin, Vyvanse and Attent. They mix all of this with alcohol, which greatly intensifies the effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consumers in the Telegram drug market take significant risks.<\/p>\n
Even if the seller claims the product is \u201coriginal,\u201d there is no way to verify whether it is counterfeit, potentially life-threatening, or improperly stored. Weight-loss injections, for example, must be kept refrigerated at all times. Who guarantees that the anonymous Telegram seller maintained proper conditions?<\/p>\n
Dosages may also be inaccurate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut people who use these channels don\u2019t complain,\u201d Papo says. \u201cThey don\u2019t go to the police or the Health Ministry, so it stays under the radar.\u201d<\/p>\n
The greatest danger, of course, is addiction.<\/p>\n
When drugs are prescribed by a doctor, patients are monitored. On Telegram, no one tells them to stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cBenzodiazepines,\u201d explains Prof. Gileles-Hillel, \u201care drugs with very strong effects that can cause respiratory depression, even death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even supposedly safer drugs can have serious side effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who misuse these drugs can experience confusion during the day, excessive drowsiness, blurring and dissociative states.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lev-Ran highlights another risk: the gateway effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cA person sometimes goes to the supermarket to buy tomatoes and ends up buying bread and eggs as well,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone who wanted a sleeping pill sees Ritalin on sale and thinks, maybe this will help me finish a project. And next time, it\u2019s even easier to add more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond enforcement, Yogev says the state can improve monitoring of prescriptions: shorten the window for using manual prescriptions, update pharmacy systems in real time to prevent duplicate use, and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in the end,\u201d she says, \u201cwe must remember that prescription drugs are often only first aid, meant to reduce symptoms, not a long-term solution. The medical system must always offer emotional and psychological support. Pills alone will not solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor will they solve the next war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took exactly a few seconds on Telegram to reach a channel called \u201cThe Good Doctor.\u201d Hi, Good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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