What’s the drug captagon and the way is it linked to Syria’s fallen Assad regime?

After the autumn of the al-Assad regime in Syria, giant stockpiles of the illicit drug captagon have reportedly been uncovered.

The stockpiles, discovered by Syrian rebels, are believed to be linked to al-Assad navy headquarters, implicating the fallen regime within the drug’s manufacture and distribution.

However as we’ll see, captagon was as soon as a pharmaceutical drug, much like a number of the legally accessible stimulants we nonetheless use as we speak for circumstances together with attention-deficit hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD).

Captagon was as soon as a pharmaceutical

Captagon is the unique model identify of an outdated artificial pharmaceutical stimulant initially made in Germany within the Sixties. It was a substitute for amphetamine and methamphetamine, which had been each used as medicines on the time.

The drug has the lively ingredient fenethylline and was initially marketed for circumstances together with ADHD and the sleeping dysfunction narcolepsy. It had an analogous use to a number of the legally accessible stimulants we nonetheless use as we speak, resembling dexamphetamine.

Captagon has related results to amphetamines. It will increase dopamine within the mind, resulting in emotions of well-being, pleasure and euphoria. It additionally improves focus, focus and stamina. But it surely has a variety of undesirable unwanted effects, resembling low-level psychosis.

The drug was initially offered largely within the Center East and components of Europe. It was accessible over-the-counter (with out a prescription) in Europe for a short while earlier than it turned prescription-only.

It was authorised solely briefly in america earlier than changing into a managed substance within the Nineteen Eighties, however was nonetheless authorized for the therapy of narcolepsy in lots of European international locations till comparatively just lately.

In keeping with the Worldwide Narcotics Management Board pharmaceutical manufacture of Captagon had stopped by 2009.

The illicit commerce took over

The illegally manufactured model is often known as captagon (with a small c). It’s typically known as “chemical braveness” as a result of it’s thought for use by troopers in war-torn areas of the Center East to assist in giving them focus and power.

As an illustration, it has been reportedly discovered on the our bodies of Hamas troopers throughout the battle with Israel.

Its manufacture is comparatively simple and cheap, making it an apparent goal for the black-market drug commerce.

Black-market captagon is now almost completely manufactured in Syria and surrounding international locations resembling Lebanon. It is largely used within the Center East, together with recreationally in some Gulf states.

It is without doubt one of the most generally used illicit medication in Syria.

A current report suggests captagon generated greater than US$7.3 billion in Syria and Lebanon between 2020 and 2022 (about $2.4 billion a 12 months).

What we learn about illicit medication typically is that any seizures or crackdowns on manufacturing or sale have a really restricted influence on the drug market as a result of one other producer or distributor pops as much as meet demand.

So in all probability, given the scale of the captagon market within the Center East, these newest drug discoveries and seizures are prone to scale back manufacture just for a short while.

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