Access under fire: OST in wartime Lebanon

On 3 March, one day after Israel bombed Beirut as part of its widening military operations on Lebanon, Lebanon’s Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Public Health, in charge of the Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST, also known as OAT) programme, announced an exceptional measure allowing OST patients to receive one month worth of medication per prescription. The prescriptions were previously capped at two weeks, even in times of crisis, and requests to extend them were repeatedly rejected by the ministry. Amid war, chaos and destruction, this piece of news provided much needed relief to over one thousand OST service users in Lebanon.

People on OST have had it rough over the past six years. Medication shortages, price hikes, successive waves of Israeli attacks and the ongoing war have repeatedly jeopardised their ability to safely access and afford this essential medicine.

“It’s a great thing,” Khaled, a service user on OST for the past 15 years, told TalkingDrugs.

“You don’t have to go down to the dispensary as much, so you’re safe. [Israel is] bombing everywhere now.”

Lebanon has been living under daily Israeli bombardment since October 2023, creating serious humanitarian concerns. Despite the agreed upon ceasefire in November 2024, which was violated more than 14,000 times by Israel, Beirut and its suburbs have been targeted almost daily since the beginning of March 2026, shortly after the US and Israel launched a joint war on Iran. To date, 20% of Lebanon’s population – roughly one million people – has been forcibly displaced.