Cheap drugs, a new calamity for Arab countries

The Middle East is awash with Captagon. A mixture of amphetamine and caffeine, this drug has become particularly popular in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Workers and partygoers use and abuse it, partly to suppress hunger and partly to stay awake as long as possible. These two countries are facing a true epidemic of Captagon, with the Emirates seizing $1 billion worth of the drug a few months ago.

Originally intended in the 1960s to treat depression and narcolepsy, Captagon was banned by Western countries in the early 1980s due to its high addictiveness and severe side effects, including acute psychosis. Its ban was successful in the West, where other drugs were readily available, giving Captagon plenty of competitors. However, it managed to infiltrate and gradually thrive in a market traditionally averse to drugs, establishing a sort of monopoly in Arab countries. In other words, while struggling to gain popularity in a saturated European market, Captagon found a relatively untouched landscape in the Middle East.

Today, consuming Captagon in Arab countries is often cheaper and sometimes easier to find than alcohol. It constitutes an essential income for Assad’s criminal regime in Syria, from where it is transported to the Gulf via militias affiliated with Iran, passing through Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey. These resources have been extensively exploited by terrorist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and the so-called Islamic State, both to fund their operations and to boost and desensitize their fighters. Captagon was commonly referred to as “Captain Courage” by these terrorists who believed it made them invincible.

This drug was and remains a panacea for Assad and his cronies who, after dismantling the production of Islamist terrorists, took control of Captagon production using Syria’s traditional chemical industry, which had plenty of specialists forced into unemployment by the civil war. It provides a vital income to a Syrian regime under heavy sanctions, estimated at nearly $6 billion per year in foreign currency, according to the think tank “New Lines Institute,” which is about a third of Syria’s GDP of $20 billion.

Having deceived the Arab League, which reinstated his country in exchange for a promise to combat “illicit substances,” Assad has obviously not followed through as Captagon manufacturers and dealers continue their activities with impunity. Recent information reveals a sort of partnership between Mexican cartels and the Syrian regime, which assists and advises them in establishing a “hub” in some Gulf countries. The ports of Abu Dhabi and Dubai are increasingly serving as transshipment points for another drug, methamphetamine, even more toxic and addictive than Captagon, transiting from Europe to Australia and New Zealand, with Syria acting as a refuge to the Mexicans, beyond the reach of American authorities.

Reflecting this flourishing trade, methamphetamine seizures are multiplying and reaching record levels in Turkey, Jordan, and more discreetly in the Gulf countries. The Arab countries are facing new challenges, indiscriminately contaminating their own citizens, both rich and poor, as well as their immigrant workers.