{"id":884,"date":"2016-04-15T05:47:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T04:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.economistes-arabes.org\/fr\/?p=884"},"modified":"2017-05-23T05:49:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T04:49:41","slug":"the-drugs-of-war-captagon-and-the-islamic-state-the-century-fundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.economistes-arabes.org\/fr\/the-drugs-of-war-captagon-and-the-islamic-state-the-century-fundation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Drugs of War\u2014Captagon and the Islamic State, the Century fundation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One perennial challenge of writing about illicit narcotics is the dearth of hard data. While drug-trafficking organizations often maintain scrupulous records of their transactions, they have a pronounced disincentive to open these books to outsiders. And for a variety of reasons, the media, the counterdrug law-enforcement establishment, and elected political leaders all have incentives to overplay the problem.<\/p>\n

In a dismayingly typical scenario, drug warriors will fill this information vacuum by conjuring up back-of-the-envelope figures, which the press will then gleefully repeat\u2014at which point, the drug warriors will seek a budget increase, citing the press account, which has now accorded their data points the aura of established fact. (This configuration of mutually affirming incentives is sometimes described\u2014by federal bureaucrats who are clear-eyed enough to admit it\u2014as a self-licking ice cream cone.)<\/p>\n

If there is fog in the drug war, there is more still in the actual armed conflagration that has consumed Syria, which is now entering its fifth year. And the violent fluidity of this conflict makes it all the more difficult to assess a wave of reports over the past several years about the significance of a little pill known as Captagon\u2014an amphetamine that is said to play a significant part in the civil war.<\/p>\n

According to numerous accounts, Captagon has become immensely popular with the fighters of the Islamic State.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to numerous accounts, Captagon has become immensely popular with the fighters of the Islamic State. The Washington Post<\/em> says Captagon is \u201cfueling Syria\u2019s war and turning fighters into superhuman soldiers<\/a>.\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> According to other reports<\/a>, the gunmen in the terrorist attack on Paris last November had used the pills, which might explain what some observers described as their relentless, \u201czombie-like\u201d focus during the assault.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> A series of alarming news stories have described the drug as a form of \u201cchemical courage<\/a>,\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> instilling those who take it with incredible strength and endurance, and the coldly robotic, fearless detachment that allows them to engage in a murderous rampage.<\/p>\n

So far, so terrifying. But these stories are, to at least some degree, at odds with what we actually know about the drug. To begin with, the very name Captagon is something of a misnomer: there was an amphetamine that was commercially manufactured under that name until the 1980s, when it was banned on the grounds that it was too addictive. The drug is no longer manufactured under license, but it is still very widely produced, and variants of it can contain<\/a> amphetamine and caffeine, and sometimes also\u2014reportedly\u2014methamphetamine and ephedrine.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Like any amphetamine, Captagon boosts your energy and can increase your focus and help you to stay awake for long periods of time. It can also create a feeling of euphoria.<\/p>\n

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