AI self-diagnosis rises in Iran as healthcare costs drive patients online

“The use of drugs among women has unfortunately increased over the past seven to 10 years, and this trend often begins with cigarette smoking,” Soleiman Abbasi, Director General of Treatment at Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters, told the ILNA news agency.

“Hashish and cannabis are the most common drugs used by women in society, and there is not a significant tendency among women to use other specific narcotic substances,” he added.

Women, Abbasi said, still account for far fewer drug users than men, although no precise official figures are available. Even so, he warned that addiction among women carries wider social consequences because of their central role in family life.

“When the mother of a family becomes addicted, the family structure quickly falls apart,” Abbasi said, adding that women who do not use drugs often play a key role in maintaining family cohesion.

Iran faces one of the world's most severe drug-use challenges because of its proximity to Afghanistan, historically the world's largest producer of opium, and the long-standing availability of opiates. Official and expert estimates suggest around 2.8 million Iranians are regular drug users, with broader estimates including occasional users exceeding four million.

Cannabis use gaining ground among younger women

Available research indicates cannabis use among Iranian women remains substantially lower than among men but has been rising, particularly among younger women and university students.

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A 2021 systematic review covering 90 Iranian studies found that 0.2% of women in the general population reported cannabis use during the previous year, compared with 1.3% of men. However, researchers identified a statistically significant increase in cannabis use among female university students between 2000 and 2020, reflecting growing consumption among younger, urban women.

Researchers have linked the trend to urbanization, changing social attitudes, easier access through informal networks, and greater exposure to global youth culture through the internet, while cautioning that stigma and legal risks likely result in substantial underreporting.

Abbasi also warned about the dangers posed by increasingly contaminated drugs.

Laboratory testing has found many seized narcotics contain harmful chemical impurities, including lead, which can worsen users' health and may contribute to fatal poisonings beyond the effects of the drugs themselves, he said.

He also highlighted overdose as a growing concern.

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  Counterfeit drugs kill 7,000 people annually in Iran

A study using data from Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization by Britain's Lancaster University recorded 11,944 drug-related deaths between March 2022 and March 2024, with men accounting for the overwhelming majority of fatalities and the average age at death around 37. Earlier official figures put annual drug-related deaths at roughly 3,000, suggesting the toll has increased sharply in recent years.

Pahlavi said Graham had stood with Iranians “when friends were seldom found” and had used his voice to amplify those fighting for justice.

“His support for Iran’s Lion and Sun Revolution earned him the title ‘Uncle Lindsey’ among Iranians. He will be remembered with profound gratitude and deep respect,” Pahlavi said in a post on X.

The Iranian prince extended condolences to Graham’s family, colleagues, the people of South Carolina and the United States.

The senior Republican lawmaker from South Carolina died after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said in a post on X. US media reported that emergency personnel had responded to a call for cardiac arrest at his Capitol Hill home on Saturday night.

Graham backed Iranian opposition

Graham told a large gathering of Iranian opposition supporters in Munich in February that it was “a time of choosing.”

“I choose the Iranian people over the murderous ayatollah. It is time for him to go,” he said as he waved Iran’s pre-1979 Lion and Sun flag.

He said he had been “dreaming of a free Iran” and urged people around the world to speak out in support of Iran’s opposition movement.

Graham was also featured in Iranian government-aligned messaging during the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, where placards showed his face alongside US President Donald Trump beneath red target symbols.

A longtime voice on foreign policy, Graham was a prominent supporter of Israel and Ukraine and a staunch critic of Iran’s government. He consistently advocated a hard line toward US adversaries. His Senate website said he had “consistently pushed for outcomes in the War on Terror that protect our long-term national security interests.”

Tributes pour in

Trump called Graham “one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known” and described him as a hard-working patriot.

After Trump became president, Graham became one of his closest allies in Congress and a frequent golf partner.

“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Graham had only recently returned from Ukraine and had been scheduled to appear on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning, the network said.

This structure keeps all the Iran-related reporting together before broadening out to US politics and international tributes, which I think is much stronger for your audience.

President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on three merchant vessels, but said negotiations would continue because Iran “wants to make a deal so badly.”

The contradiction suggests the memorandum may be doing something narrower than ending the conflict. It has failed to prevent renewed violence, but may still provide a structure through which Washington and Tehran can contain escalation, preserve communication and negotiate between military exchanges.

The latest crisis has already damaged one of the memorandum’s main objectives: restoring safe commercial passage through the Strait of Hormuz while the two sides pursued a broader agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and other disputes.

The question is no longer simply whether the ceasefire survived. It is whether the memorandum was ever a peace agreement, or a system for managing an unfinished war.

Experts who spoke to Iran International’s Eye for Iran podcast differed over whether the arrangement remains viable, but broadly agreed that both Washington and Tehran still have reasons to prevent the confrontation from returning to full-scale war.

Jonatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Tehran may have calculated that it could test US limits, absorb a contained response and retain many of the economic benefits it secured under the agreement.

“That to them was a gamble that was kind of worth it,” Sayeh said.

From the IRGC’s perspective, the outcome may still fall short of its worst-case scenario. Iran was struck, but the broader maritime blockade has not been fully restored, Tehran can continue selling oil to China, and the confrontation did not immediately return to all-out war.

Sayeh also questioned claims that Iran’s civilian government had simply lost control of the Guards.

Tehran may instead be using a new version of its longstanding “good cop, bad cop” strategy, he said, with civilian officials seeking concessions while presenting the IRGC as an independent force they cannot fully restrain.

Historian and Atlantic contributing writer Arash Azizi said the attacks had not necessarily destroyed the broader framework.

“I certainly don’t think it was doomed to fail,” Azizi said. “And I don’t, in fact, think it has failed actually yet.”

Neither Washington nor Tehran appears eager to resume full-scale war, he said. That shared interest could preserve negotiations even after the immediate ceasefire collapsed.

Azizi said hardline pressure on President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi may also help explain the attacks. Factions opposed to the agreement could fear that 60 days of normal traffic through Hormuz would make it harder for Iran to reassert control of the waterway as a source of leverage.

Fatima Al-Asrar, a senior policy analyst at Ideology Machine, argued that the memorandum’s ambiguity may have benefited the IRGC from the outset.

She called it a “memorandum of undoing,” saying it postponed or weakened earlier US demands concerning Iran’s nuclear program, armed allies and regional conduct.

“The MoU gives you this kind of maybe false sense of progress, and I think it’s performative mostly,” Al-Asrar said. “It’s a truce, and that’s great, but it’s driven by short-term political wins.”

Rather than removing Iran’s capacity to threaten shipping, she said, the arrangement may have allowed Tehran to retain what amounts to a geopolitical switch.

Iran can reduce tensions when it seeks sanctions relief, oil revenue or diplomatic concessions, then disrupt the strait again when it wants greater leverage.

The consequences extend far beyond Washington and Tehran. Disruption in Hormuz raises shipping and energy costs and can affect fertilizer supplies and food prices across Asia and other import-dependent regions.

Itai Reuveni, director of communications at NGO Monitor, described the memorandum as a deliberately flexible answer to the immediate needs of all sides.

Iran wanted to stop US and Israeli strikes before they threatened the survival of the Islamic Republic. Washington wanted to avoid another prolonged Middle Eastern war. Israel had demonstrated its ability to strike Iran but also faced the costs and risks of a sustained campaign.

The agreement reduced the intensity of the war without settling the disputes that caused it.

“It seems to me that the line is always being pushed,” Reuveni said.

The United States, Israel and Iran may now be entering a prolonged cycle in which each side tests how far it can go without triggering another major war.

That may explain why military action and diplomacy are continuing at the same time.

The memorandum did not create a conventional peace process in which violence stopped before negotiations began. It created a framework in which strikes, threats, retaliation and mediation could unfold alongside one another.

The attacks in Hormuz have damaged that framework and increased the danger of miscalculation. Another round of fighting could be broader and more destructive.

But whether the memorandum is dead depends on what it was expected to achieve.

The ceasefire may be over. The managed confrontation it created may only be beginning.

Episode 111 of Eye for Iran is available on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

Outlets from different political camps are warning of mounting pressure from inflation, falling purchasing power, unemployment and infrastructure failures, even as they sharply disagree over who is responsible.

Independent and reformist-leaning publications such as Sharq, Etemad and Tose’e Irani have focused on the rising cost of basic goods, reporting that food prices have surged far beyond wage growth.

They point to basic commodities such as bread, poultry and vegetable oil rising between 130% and more than 200%, while wages cover only a fraction of estimated household costs.

Even outlets close to the government, including ILNA and Etemad, have highlighted the growing gap between income and survival, noting that the minimum wage of around 16.6 million tomans covers less than 40% of the estimated 45-million-toman basic subsistence basket for an average family.

Beyond inflation and market instability, Iranian media have also focused on a worsening infrastructure crisis.

Severe rolling summer blackouts have returned, disrupting factories, increasing pressure on businesses and making daily life harder during peak heat.

The search for blame mirrors Tehran’s broader political divisions.

Moderate and reformist outlets such as Sharq, Etemad and Arman Melli emphasize structural failures, isolation and the economic toll of years of confrontation.

They argue that sanctions, conflict, damaged infrastructure and policy failures have intensified pressure on the economy.

Some commentators have warned of an “inflation bomb” and questioned whether decision-makers understand the “accumulation of public dissatisfaction.”

Earlier this week, Jahan Sanat published industrial analyst Alireza Mahdiyeh’s commentary under the headline “The sound of an inflation bomb,” citing Central Bank figures that he said showed the economy facing one of its worst periods in decades.

“Inflation has now reached even the price of bread,” he wrote. “Bread is still available, but more expensive than before. Yet inflation in bread does not give the baker more bread. It only means that what reaches people’s tables is smaller and less than before.”

Moderate outlets have also pointed to domestic policy decisions, including severe internet restrictions and blackouts, arguing they have damaged the digital economy and created widespread “hidden unemployment.”

Hardline dailies Kayhan and Resalat offered a different diagnosis, placing responsibility on the United States and Israel.

They argue that Washington’s declaration that the June interim agreement is “dead,” combined with renewed military pressure, proves that Western economic warfare is driving instability.

These outlets have also accused “economic saboteurs,” domestic speculators and merchants of manipulating currency markets and hoarding essential goods.

The proposed solutions reveal two competing visions for Iran’s future.

Hardliners have called for a “resistance economy,” including tighter controls on markets, action against price gouging and expanded rationing networks.

Moderate economists and commentators writing for outlets such as Donya-ye-Eghtesad argue that internal crackdowns cannot solve deeper structural problems.

They say economic stability depends on reducing tensions, restoring international trade, easing restrictions on businesses and creating conditions for investment and reconstruction.

But optimism remains limited as the damaged diplomatic process between Tehran and Washington offers little immediate relief.

As economist Mehdi Pazouki told reform-leaning Fararu, further escalation could push the country into even more dangerous territory.

“If Israel’s warmongering policies and the hardline approaches of certain actors inside Iran intensify, there is a serious possibility that we will move toward hyperinflation and the dollarization of the economy,” he said.

The complaints came as the energy ministry called for consumers to reduce electricity use by at least 10%, warning that high temperatures are expected to push demand above 75,500 megawatts in the coming days.

"Electricity has been out since 2 a.m. and it's now 5 a.m. We still don't have power," one resident in Islamshahr, near Tehran wrote.

Average temperatures, the ministry said, are forecast to reach around 41 degrees Celsius between July 14 and July 18 and remain unusually high through the following week. It urged households to set air conditioners to 25 degrees Celsius, switch off unnecessary electrical appliances and move heavy electricity use outside peak hours to preserve grid stability.

The outages come against the backdrop of a widening structural energy deficit. The latest Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute found Iran's electricity generation increased by only 1% last year and natural gas production by 1.3%, a sharp slowdown from the previous decade and well below the pace needed to meet rising demand.

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  Iran’s energy growth slows to a crawl as demand races ahead

Years of underinvestment, delayed infrastructure projects and international sanctions have left the country increasingly unable to meet its own energy needs despite holding some of the world's largest oil and gas reserves.

Residents report outages across Iran

Accounts shared pointed to repeated outages in Tehran province, Alborz, Khuzestan and Fars, with many residents saying electricity was cut for two to three hours at a time.

"Power in Fardis of Karaj went out twice on Thursday – first from 7 a.m. to 7:50 a.m. and then again from 10 until 12:10 p.m.," one resident wrote.

Another in Shiraz said electricity was cut shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, while residents in Karaj, in the vicinity of Tehran, also reported another evening blackout.

Several messages came from the southern Khuzestan province, where temperatures regularly climb well above 40 degrees Celsius during the summer.

"They've started the two-hour power cuts again in this unbearable heat," one citizen wrote. "Then they ask what we're supposed to do if power plants are hit."

Another resident questioned why shortages persist despite the province's energy resources.

"With this intense heat in Khuzestan, why should a country this rich suffer shortages of water and electricity?" the resident wrote. "They've started cutting both for at least three hours a day again. Inflation has already broken people's backs."

One person in Masjed Soleyman, Khuzestan province, described losing both electricity and water for three hours, ending the message with a call for public protests.

Food, water and daily life affected

Several said the outages were disrupting everyday life beyond the inconvenience of losing air conditioning.

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"I went through so much hardship and debt to buy meat and fish," one resident wrote. "By the time I got home, the electricity went out and we've been without power for three hours. The meat I struggled to buy is spoiling."

Another wrote: "Every day it's either the water or the electricity, or they dig up the streets and take forever to fix them. We live in a city with abundant oil, yet there's poverty and unemployment."

The energy ministry said climate studies show the southern provinces of Hormozgan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, Sistan and Baluchestan and Ilam experience the country's longest periods of extreme heat, placing the greatest strain on the electricity network during the summer.

Officials said reducing air-conditioner settings by one degree and improving energy efficiency could significantly lower demand, urging consumers to conserve electricity to help maintain supplies during the prolonged heatwave.

Messages from Shiraz and Mashhad also described overnight or daytime power cuts, while another resident complained that either electricity or water was being interrupted almost daily.

Officials say prolonged high temperatures have sharply increased electricity demand, particularly in southern provinces, where cooling accounts for a large share of consumption.

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  Power, water outages disrupt daily life across Iran

Energy experts cited by state media say raising air-conditioner settings by one degree Celsius could reduce cooling demand by roughly 2.5%, while improving the efficiency of cooling equipment and buildings could further lower electricity consumption.