Border Traffic: How Syria Uses Captagon to Gain Leverage Over Saudi Arabia

https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/07/border-traffic-how-syria-uses-captagon-to-gain-leverage-over-saudi-arabia

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  1. This article discusses the trade in Captagon, an illicit recreational drug in the amphetamine family which is a codrug of amphetamine, the powerful stimulant, and theophylline, a drug in the same methylxanthine family of drugs as caffeine. The Syrian dictator Bashar-Al-Assad leverages Syria’s dominant position in the manufacture and distribution of Captagon to exert influence in the Arab world, putting pressure on the Gulf states to treat his regime favourably.