The Gaza government media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills reportedly discovered in flour bags distributed by “American-Israeli” aid centres.
“We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags,” it said in a statement, warning of the “possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself”.
Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients.
The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects, including breathing complications and hallucinations.
The media office’s statement comes after several social media posts shared images of pills purportedly discovered in flour bags in Gaza.
You’re implying that the drugs are snuggled in for altruistic reasons, rather than to unwittingly get lots of people hooked on an opioid
Occam’s razor.
There is a tremendously strong need to get painkillers into Gaza. And smuggler’s drones have been getting shot down. Aid is one of the few channels in. I would expect that someone is going to try to leverage that.
There are also addicts that are trying to have stuff smuggled in. Prime example of this is something as simple as cigarettes. There are quite a few articles about Israel stopping and intercepting people smuggling in cigarettes.
But poisoning or getting random people hooked on opioids? It was loose pills, and a more expensive opiate. If this was a scheme to poison or hook people, it’s a complex and dumb one. If you know anything about opiates, you know there are far better and cheaper to hook or kill people if that’s your goal.