Increase in Alcohol Poisoning Victims in Karaj: 141 Hospitalized and Two More Dead

Forty-eight hours after the first reports of 'severe poisoning' in areas of Karaj due to 'toxic alcoholic beverages', the death toll continues to rise. Majid Ghamkhvar, a journalist in the field of incidents, wrote: Two days after the news of 'distribution of toxic alcoholic beverages in Karaj', people 'are still using them', the number of poisoned individuals has reached '141', and 'two more died in the hospital yesterday.' The state news agency of Iran reported on Friday, June 16, citing 'unofficial sources', that the death toll from 'alcohol poisoning' in Karaj was '14', a report confirmed by the head of the judiciary in Alborz province. According to this report, the poisoned individuals, whose gender was not specifically mentioned in the published reports, were residents of the Islamabad and Hasarak areas of Karaj and were aged '20 to 50 years', hospitalized in four hospitals: 'Kowsar, Alborz, Rajai, and Kasra' in Karaj. The publication of news related to the casualties from homemade alcoholic beverages has always faced a wave of protests on Iranian social media, with many users reminding that currently, restrictions and prohibitions on the type of beverages for citizens exist only in structures like the Islamic Republic, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, or North Korea, calling for their removal. In this context, Masoud Najafi-Thani, a Twitter user, wrote: 'Isn't it time to think of a reasonable and logical solution for these issues? How should we interact with a society where alcohol consumption is on the rise?' Amirhossein Eshteghaqi, an economics student, also responded to Abdollah Ganji, a figure close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who mocked the request to liberalize alcohol consumption, writing: 'Naturally, religious individuals can refrain from consuming alcohol, and those who wish to consume alcohol should be able to access it (this is a personal decision); otherwise, the market for counterfeit alcoholic beverages will flourish and people's lives will be endangered.' According to the latest announcement by Shahram Sayadi, the head of the Alborz University of Medical Sciences, at least '12 people' have died due to these poisonings in Karaj, '4 people' have been intubated, and according to the Islamic Republic's law enforcement officials, '6 people' have also been arrested in this case. The statistics regarding this incident are contradictory, and some officials of the Islamic Republic have only provided information related to the first wave of poisonings in Karaj, while others have refrained from announcing a unified statistic, only updating the status of new victims and new consumers. Alcohol consumption in Iran, unlike many other countries in the world, is 'prohibited', and the judicial system of the Islamic Republic can impose fines, lashes, detention, or in some cases, execution for consumers. According to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the purchase, sale, and consumption of alcohol is illegal. However, reports indicate that the preparation and sale of alcoholic beverages underground and in the absence of legal oversight have become prevalent in the country. In recent years, news related to poisonings from alcohol consumption has repeatedly leaked to the media, including an alcohol poisoning incident in Bandar Abbas that occurred in Ordibehesht 1401 (April-May 2022), which claimed the lives of 14 people and sent dozens more to the hospital.