Syria has become a narco-state

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/07/19/syria-has-become-a-narco-state

by MKais • 5 years ago

47 56 5 years ago

MKais• 5 years ago

ReptileMan• 5 years ago

IN THE DUNES north of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the sun sets and the party begins. Girls discard their abayas, the black shrouds that envelop them in public, and begin jiving to techno music with boys. A few swig from bottles, but most prefer Captagon pills, nowadays the Gulf’s favourite drug, at $25 a pop. They call it Abu Hilalain (Father of Two Half-moons), after the two letter “c”s (for Captagon) embossed on the pills. Part of the amphetamine family, it can have a similar effect to Viagra—and conquers sleep. “With one pill,” says a raver, “we can dance all weekend.”

Can anyone that is on the ground please confirm this. Party scene in KSA outside of the state inside the state that is Aramco seems like fiction.

Scoundreller6• 5 years ago

Part of the amphetamine family, it can have a similar effect to Viagra

I don’t think the writer knows what viagra does.

elil17• 5 years ago

The drug is a vasodilator, whereas most amphetamines are vasoconstrictors.

lyaa• 5 years ago

I second the request for confirmation. It does sound like fiction to me too.

Scoundreller6• 5 years ago

I’d have believed it if it were indoors, but out in the open seems excessively risky. At least that’s how it works in other “dry” countries.

Though I dunno the living conditions of wealthy saudis outside of aramco compounds (or do the wealthy live there too?)

jessaustin2• 5 years ago

Any M5M piece about Syria is automatically suspect. Recall how sure they were about Douma chlorine attacks, etc. Perhaps even worse than reporting fake crap are the true, relevant facts they leave out. TFA doesn't even mention the nation (USA) that currently occupies the resource-rich eastern third of the nation. Even the linked "War is Bad" article displays a map that pretends it's actually "Kurds" who are currently in control of all the oil and grain that Syria produces. These clowns weren't mad at Trump for the occupation, since Biden has continued it. They were just mad that Trump talked about the occupation.

baybal22• 5 years ago

Go, and look what you get on Tinder, say somewhere in Jeddah...

Scoundreller6• 5 years ago

I won’t, but what?

oh_sigh• 5 years ago

There are thousands of princes who each get millions of dollars per year stipend with absolutely no responsibility. So yes, there absolutely is a huge party scene in the kingdom, so long as you aren't poor or conservative/religious.

pantalaimon• 5 years ago

Makes me wonder why they would choose such an obscure substance

Scoundreller6• 5 years ago

Availability is usually the answer. Lots of overland routes available where it’s popular/legal/cheap within the Middle East.

Though the APIs probably originate from China so you’d think more “western” choices would be made.

Presumably the party culture had been adopted from EU/USA.

Leparamour3• 5 years ago

Though the APIs probably originate from China

What does API stand for in this context?

peanut_worm2• 5 years ago

Amphetamine tablets are extremely popular in Asia

Scoundreller6• 5 years ago

Amphetamine sure, but captagon is a more complicated molecule without any real extra benefit. Théophyllines are meh unless you’re nearly dying of lung disease.

However, Wikipedia reports:

“ Many of these counterfeit "Captagon" tablets actually contain other amphetamine derivatives that are easier to produce, but are pressed and stamped to look like Captagon pills.”

which makes a lot more sense if the chemistry is being done in Syria.

555552• 5 years ago

Yes but Captagon is not. How did it become so popular in the middle east and north africa?

tomc1985• 5 years ago

Obscure? Isn't this the drug that ISIL feeds its "soldiers"?

anigbrowl2• 5 years ago

Somewhat off topic (because the nature and direction of trade is main story here) but this illegal drug doesn't sound particularly terrible.

Talk of the destruction of youth seems hyperbolic to put it mildly, though Islamic orthodoxy frowns upon intoxicants of any kind, not to mention loud music and dancing. The anxiety seems to be rooted in fears of cultural rather than medical harm. Of course, one might say the same of proscriptive drug policies everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenethylline

throwaway0a5e2• 5 years ago

The drug in question seems to be in the meth family so I'd be hesitant to say that usage in "high enough to get addicted" quantities is not harmful since it probably has negative side effects similar to meth at that point. At small doses it's probably similar to adderall which is pretty harmless.

The article doesn't make clear what dosage the average recreational user is taking.

anigbrowl2• 5 years ago

As described it sounds more like MDMA (aka ecstasy or molly, and also part of the amphetamine family); while not harm free it's not nearly as strongly associated with abuse or negative health outcomes as methamphetamine. We have to guess about dose, but I'd say most party drug consumers aim to balance the pleasure of dancing all night with the ability to do so on an ongoing basis.

satellite2• 5 years ago

A french report debunked that contemporary captagon actually contains any Fenethylline, as most of the production capabilities have been dismantled in the 90s following its prohibition. Captagon varies in content but is most often plain amphetamine.

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2017/07/27/captagon-u...

ghurida-24• 5 years ago

Syria has basically tacitely legalized both the production and the consumption of drugs. Drug export is also it's biggest income.

More countries should follow their example.

Imagine how much tax dollars would be gained if all drugs were legalized in US and let's say 20% of it's population started to regularly use them.

gruez• 5 years ago

Better yet, let's export it to unwilling countries to balance our trade deficit!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars

Afforess• 5 years ago

Imagine how much tax dollars would be gained if all drugs were legalized in US and let's say 20% of it's population started to regularly use them.

...What? Is this a serious take? You think widespread recreational hard drug usage would increase tax revenue and not have any other negative externalities? Like... dead people don't pay taxes.

stickfigure• 5 years ago

Question for you: What percentage of the US population do you think regularly (say, once a month or more) consumes hard drugs? Include prescription painkillers and amphetamines in this count, even if they are prescribed by doctors.

I'll bet it's not too far away from 20% already.

throwaway98211• 5 years ago

Imagine how much tax dollars would be gained if all drugs were legalized in US and let's say 20% of it's population started to regularly use them.

Maybe... Or, the same criminal underworld that controlled the drug trade still does, but now operates with more impunity (and still doesn't pay taxes.)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Illegal-pot-invades-Cali...

baybal22• 5 years ago

I want to remind to our American readers of another narco-state flooding USA with fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids, about which the mighty country of America can't do anything about, but moan, complain, and keep calling for "security summits" for their amusement.

Scoundreller6• 5 years ago

Canada? Mexico? China?

underseacables• 5 years ago

How dare you! Now you’re just being xenophobic! Racist!

/sarcasm

555552• 5 years ago

(The answer is China.)

8note• 5 years ago

I thought the sacklers were american

pphysch• 5 years ago

The Taliban culled opium production in Afghanistan shortly before the US led invasion, after which production miraculously recovered and increased [1].

But sure, it's definitely "China", which has extreme cultural trauma around opiates (and zero tolerance policy toward them) and analogs since the Opium Wars devastated the entire country, that is the primary problem. No blame for the pharmaceutical companies and pill pushers who rely on Golden Crescent/Triangle opium exports!

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47861444.amp

srswtf1232• 5 years ago

I believe this was always the plan, from the US perspective?

https://www.salon.com/2007/10/12/wesley_clark/

crazy_horse• 5 years ago

No, the US did not plan to start a civil war which left the Syrian regime in place while destabilizing their own allies. The US has been involved in all of this, of course, but the Syrian civil war is largely a result of the a series of 2011 uprisings that started by accident.

thera22• 5 years ago

They underestimated Syria and Assad leadership, they hoped they could take over the country.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/middleeast/cia-syri...

srswtf1232• 5 years ago

Well, this seems an entirely fair point. Starting a civil war is not the same as toppling a government.

From my perspective, the difference is irrelevant. The broader plan seems to have been to throw the Middle East into chaos by upending every government of consequence in the region -- except Israel.

Did the US government succeed in the broader plan? Perhaps mostly? As a US citizen, it sure doesn't feel like a win, or even remotely the correct course of action.

csomar2• 5 years ago

Sure. These poor revolutionaries and their billions of $$ of weapons.

conception• 5 years ago

Not by accident - one of the first major climate change conflicts - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/150302-sy...

Not the best source but lack of resources (water) due to shifting climate patterns is one of the stronger roots of the civil war.

frandroid• 5 years ago

Okay, the Kurds who control the Iraq/Turkey border, but aren't the PKK, trading through the mountains??

Also I want to know if the drugs in the photo were hidden in the pomegranates

slownews452• 5 years ago

The whole Syria thing - what was the US end goal? I mean, seriously - even in best case? You've got a country where women are educated, the economy sort of works etc. A bunch of guys with guns takes over and....

thera22• 5 years ago

To install a US puppet dictator. They don't care about the people.

nate_meurer2• 5 years ago

Which dictator is that?

csomar2• 5 years ago

Russia is the end goal. Syria and Lebanon (through Huzballah) are puppet states for the Russian regime. They are clearly, also, very important; otherwise, Russia would not have intervened militarily (directly) in the Syrian war.

mola• 5 years ago

Huh? Obama tried to stay clear of Syria. The damage was done by US in a round about way, the second Iraqi war and it's aftermath which left a huge power vaccum in the region, and killing many US troops and Iraqi and Afghani civilians. Which is exactly why Obama didn't want to get the US stuck in there.

Russia and Iran stepped in to enlarge their hegemony, and they put the Assad regime back in power.

So kindly blame Russia and Iran for this.

slownews452• 5 years ago

But seriously - where did all the weapons -> anti-tank missiles etc pop up from? You had a bunch of protestors -> all of a sudden armed to the teeth...

This is Russia and Iran? Syria was already close to Russia and Iran economically / etc. Why would russia and iran arm the protestors?

The US is far far away. The US isn't (that) aligned with the idea of a muslim / islamic state / caliphate etc.

Again - be very interesting to trace where all these weapons popped up. I mean this was Russia arming them?

Leparamour3• 5 years ago

Obama tried to stay clear of Syria.

How does the supporting 'moderate rebels' figure into Obama's strategy of de-escalation in Syria?

Syria has become a narco-state

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