The underground tunnels between Egypt and the Palestinian city of Gaza in the Middle East may be a lifeline for those trapped inside the blockaded Gaza Strip, but along with the clothes, furniture and food that make their way through the tunnels, a dangerous drug - Tramadol - is also slipping through.
Tramal, as it is known in Gaza, is a dangerously addictive painkiller which is illegal without a prescription, but a growing number of Gazans are getting hooked on it.
Israel's siege has cut Gazans off from the outside world and made hundreds of thousands of them jobless.
Eighty per cent of the population are now dependent on some form of United NationS handout.
As the people of Gaza slip deeper into poverty, they are increasingly succumbing to drug abuse, according to doctors in the region.
Local authorities say that the number of drug-related arrests in Gaza have more than doubled in the past year, despite the Hamas regime's strict narcotics controls.
Uncomfortably Numb talks to some of those addicts, those who are trying to help them and the authorities seeking to crack down on drug abuse.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
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Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
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