What is Captagon, an addictive drug mass-produced in Syria?

stated in 2011 that no country had produced phenethylline since 2009. But nothing really happened to production, did it? After official production ceased, remnants of the drug were exported from Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria, to the Middle East. Eventually, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Bulgaria began producing new counterfeit pills called Captagon, according to a 2018 report by the European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Addiction. The drugs were then smuggled out of the country by Balkan and Turkish criminal networks to the Arabian Peninsula. Severe prosecution by Turkish and Bulgarian authorities, including the closure of 18 mostly large laboratories involved in synthesizing''amphetamine, have led to a sharp decline in drug trafficking in the Balkans.

Why is Syria now producing so much Captagon? In 2011, Syria plunged into civil war after the government's brutal crackdown on anti-Assad protests. Cut off from the international community and torn by war, the country found itself in an economic crisis. Although Damascus denies involvement in the drug trade, observers say drug production and smuggling has brought billions of dollars to Assad, his associates and allies who have sought economic backing. According to a report by the New Lines Institute, the Syrian government has used "local alliances with other armed groups, such as Hizbullah, to obtain technical and logistical'''support for the production and smuggling of Captagon'." Experts say most of the global production of Captagon now takes place in Syria, with its main destination being the wealthy Gulf states.

What are Jordan and the Gulf states doing about this issue? Ever since the countries through which large quantities of Captagon passed have stepped up efforts to stem the flow of drugs from Syria.