Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The use of molokhia mixed with nicotine has become widespread as street vendors try to get by.
What used to be a modest source of income before the war became unstable due to Israeli restrictions on access to Gaza.
Israel has banned tobacco from entering Gaza since the start of its war on the territory – which has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians – along with other restrictions on food and humanitarian aid entering the camp that led to famine last year.
The restrictions were supposed to be lifted under a ceasefire that began in October, but Israel continues to restrict access to Gaza.
Abdul Karim Heles, 36, from Shujayea, who has now fled his home in western Gaza City, has been selling tobacco for years.
“We’ve been working on tobacco since before the war … and we’ve continued,” he says. “I don’t have any other job.”
But the real change, he explains, is not only in business practices, but in customer behavior.
As cigarette prices skyrocket, people have been turning to exotic substitutes, including herbs mixed with nicotine, especially molokhia.
The idea, he says, spread as a spontaneous process, part of a development process driven by scarcity. But they know that this “method” has many health risks.
“The use of raw nicotine and herbs is dangerous … it is toxic and can cause death,” he warns, recalling what happened in the market. “I know two people who recently died after taking nicotine.”
He explains that the danger is not in the nicotine itself, but in the way it interacts with dry herbs, especially molokhia, which has been widely used because it “holds something” better than other plants.
He said: “Nicogene does not stick to all herbs. “Molokhia is keeping … that’s why it spread so much, even though they were warned.”
The method of preparation, he adds, is uncountable: the leaves are dried, crushed and mixed with nicotine to produce a product used for smoking, far from any safety standards.
Alaa insists that it cannot be considered as a real-life strategy.
But, he says, economic realities and rising cigarette prices leave him with a choice.
“A package used to cost 15 shekels ($5.15)… now it’s up to 500 or 600 shekels ($171 or $205),” he explains. “It’s become impossible for a lot of people.”
He adds that even a single cigarette is now sold at a higher price, indicating a significant fall in purchasing power.
This great increase, combined with the shortage and prohibition of imports, has greatly reduced the demand, not because of health awareness, but because people cannot afford it.
