Drug Wars

April 15, 2023 4:32 AM

A little-known drug brought billions to Syria's coffers. Now it's a bargaining chip - "After more than a decade of boycotting him, Syria's Arab neighbors are now in talks to bring President Bashar al-Assad in from the cold. The Syrian leader has been received in some Arab capitals, but he is yet to be awarded the ultimate normalization with Saudi Arabia, one of Syria's staunchest foes – and the biggest market for its drugs."

“Captagon has been touted as a ‘card’ in rapprochement talks between the Syrian regime and counterparts pursuing normalization,” said Caroline Rose, director of the New Lines Institute’s Project on the Captagon Trade in Washington, DC.

“The regime has been leveraging its agency over the captagon trade, signaling to states considering normalization that they could reduce captagon trafficking as a goodwill gesture,” Rose told CNN.

Exported by several actors, including Syrian smugglers, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and pro-Iranian Iraqi militias, “the captagon smuggling is worth more than Syria’s legal export,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and an expert on the topic. Hezbollah has denied ties to any drug trades.

The United Kingdom, which last month imposed new sanctions on Syrians connected to the trade, said the Assad regime has benefited from the captagon trade to the tune of $57 billion. It described it as a “financial lifeline” for Assad that is “worth approximately three times the combined trade of the Mexican (drug) cartels.”

Saudi Arabia, Syria welcome thaw in ties, agree to fight drug trafficking - "Assad, with the help of his main allies Iran and Russia, regained control over much of Syria, and Saudi Arabia has said isolating him was not working."

Changing Middle East pushes G7 to discuss waning influence, diplomats say - "'A reconfiguration is under way,' said a French diplomatic source who was officially briefing reporters but required anonymity as is standard policy."

"The region is going through serious upheaval, be it the Iranian nuclear crisis aspect, but also the recomposition of the geopolitical balances with the Iran, Saudi, China deal. We can see something is happening with Syria after the earthquake," he said.

Certain Middle East allies, notably Saudi Arabia, have questioned U.S. security commitments to the region and have opted to remain neutral over Russia's war against Ukraine, pushing them to diversify their relationships, including with China, instead of relying on the West.

also btw...
-Opium Wars
-Fourth-generation warfare
-U.S., Mexico and China trade accusations over fentanyl crisis
-China says no illegal fentanyl trafficking between it and Mexico

posted by kliuless (10 comments total)

TIL Obetrol became Adderall in the mid-90s.

I work in a field that taxes my braincase and now as my career is winding down I could use something like this, though I suppose ChatGPT is becoming a good enough crutch.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 8:19 AM on April 15, 2023

WTF, this stuff sounds a lot better than ritalin/vyvanse for people who are having qol-impairing side effects.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:05 AM on April 15, 2023

Mod note: Several comments removed. Do not attempt to derail this post by having a debate about Nazis, whom we can all agree are bad, thank you.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 10:02 AM on April 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

WTF, this stuff sounds a lot better than ritalin/vyvanse for people who are having qol-impairing side effects

It’s a prodrug for amphetamine and a xanthine (caffeine/theobromine family member) so I dunno, kinda sounds like a worse vyvanse to me, personally. I’m also under the impression that more than anything at this point it’s just the street name for speed pills in the region.
posted by atoxyl at 12:26 PM on April 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

TIL Obetrol became Adderall in the mid-90s

The on-the-nose naming of these always amuses me.
posted by atoxyl at 12:30 PM on April 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

5 billion a year is alot of money to Assad
but the cartels far out earn this.
China had a severe problem with drugs when Mao came to power, the solution was very harsh, very harsh. but I'm not really inclined to chest beat about the war on drugs around the world when a basketball player can be jalied for hemp oil.
posted by clavdivs at 4:52 PM on April 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

I’m also under the impression that more than anything at this point it’s just the street name for speed pills in the region.

Right--the Wikipedia article says that a lot of "captagon" is just an amphetamine/caffeine stack.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:53 PM on April 15, 2023

Are your militants low energy and fatigued? Get them all hopped up on speed, and see them become the reactionary force you always wanted! Also works on low-paid indentured construction workers.
posted by scruss at 11:52 AM on April 16, 2023

China says no illegal fentanyl trafficking between it and Mexico

lol. lmao. Plenty of blame to go around for the fentanyl crisis, but come ON
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 4:48 PM on April 16, 2023

it’s a technicality - there’s likely less export of fentanyl analogs as a finished product from China now but more of precursors
posted by atoxyl at 9:03 AM on April 17, 2023