What is the drug of choice in Iran?

Smoked opium is the traditional drug of abuse in Iran, but opium is also drunk, dissolved in tea. Opium and its residue are also injected, dissolved in water, by a small number of addicts. Iranians have clearly been using more heroin during the past several years.

Iran is still one of the main conduits for illegal drugs trafficking; namely opium, hashish, heroin and morphine base, which originate from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and are destined mainly for markets in Europe and the Persian Gulf and Middle East region.

Does Iran export drugs?

Poland and Norway are considered emerging markets for the country’s pharmaceutical and knowledge-based companies, he said, adding that Iran exports $100 million worth of medicines abroad annually, half of which is exported to European countries.21 Jan 2024

Which country is the biggest supplier of drugs?

The top pharmaceutical manufacturing nations in the world are the United States of America, China, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Italy, India and Belgium. The USA is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing nation in the world producing medicines worth $516,664,631,098.1 Mar 2024

What is the use of Captagon in the Middle East?

Terrorist groups, including the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, had taken over much of Syria, and they sold captagon to raise money. Their fighters also consumed it to lower inhibitions, stay awake, and gain a sense of invincibility. “Captain Courage” is a nickname for the drug.11 Apr 2024

Captagon is a major stimulant used amongst some jihadist fighters. It is sometimes dubbed the “Jihad drug” because of this.

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New York Post published January 22nd 2024 By Jonathan Schanzer and Natal Ecanow

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Opinion

Iran-backed narco-terrorists are making billions and widening the war in the Middle East

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Published Jan. 22, 2024, 6:19 p.m. ET

Secretary of State Antony Blinken toured the Middle East this month in an effort to prevent a wider regional war.

But while Blinken was there, Jordanian jet fighters struck Iran-backed militias and narco-traffickers in Syria.

Jordan’s narco-battles have received scant attention but are part and parcel of Iran’s multifront offensive against the United States and its allies across the region.

Iran-backed Hamas provoked the war with Israel, while Iran-backed Hezbollah attacks Israel daily from across the Lebanese border.

The Iran-backed Houthis are striking ships in the Red Sea.

And Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have attacked American bases there more than 130 times since mid-October.

The lure of immense profits drives the drug trade, but Iran and its proxies also sense an opportunity to destabilize Jordan, a country that serves a vital role — geographically and politically — in sustaining a regional order favorable to US interests.

By infiltrating Jordan with large hauls of the amphetamine-like drug captagon — whose trade was estimated in 2021 at $5.7 billion and has only grown since — as well as explosives and other arms, the narco-traffickers pursue both objectives.

Jordanian troops have been clashing regularly with smugglers at the Syrian border for more than two years.

Amman is now escalating its campaign by taking military action inside Syrian territory.

Already this year, Jordan’s air force has launched a half-dozen strikes north of the border.

see also

Iran ‘directly involved’ in Houthis’ Red Sea attacks in support of Hamas, US Navy chief says

Jordanian planes struck warehouses and the suspected home of a drug dealer Jan. 4 in the Syrian villages of Al-Ghariya and Shaab, respectively.

Jordan carried out four more strikes in enemy territory Jan. 9, targeting three dealers and a farm in villages near the border.

The operation “resulted in the arrest of seven wanted persons in connection with smuggling gangs and drug dealers,” according to the Jordanian army.

Another set of strikes hit Syria Thursday, killing at least nine.

Amman is under no illusions about who it’s fighting in this war: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Former Jordanian minister Samih Maayteh said so explicitly, after dozens of narco-traffickers attempted to infiltrate Jordan Dec. 18 with explosives and 5 million captagon pills.

“It’s Iran sponsoring these militias,” Maayteh said. “These are hostile military actions against Jordan on its territory.”

The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, a loyal client of Tehran, also plays an integral role in the captagon trade, along with Hezbollah.

The US Treasury Department noted last year that Assad and his allies “have increasingly embraced the production and trafficking of captagon to generate hard currency.”

Central to the business is the Syrian army’s Fourth Armored Division, commanded by the dictator’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad.

Hezbollah facilitates and profits from trafficking operations — its members are reportedly supervising a new captagon factory in eastern Syria that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped establish in December.

see also

What is Captagon? ‘Poor man’s cocaine’ is a favorite of Mideast militants

For a time, Jordan was mainly a transit point for captagon, which fetches a higher price in wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia.

But Jordan is now a market for captagon, too, albeit less lucrative — the price of a pill in Amman is still many times greater than its cost to producers in Syria or Lebanon.

Last February and March, Jordan’s King Abdullah II asked the Biden administration for help in its narco-war.

Washington should respond affirmatively.

But as Washington backs Jordan against Iranian threats in Syria, Amman must be made to understand that its harsh rhetoric against Israel is undermining its own cause.

King Abdullah said in October that Israel’s defensive campaign against Hamas is “cruel and unconscionable” and accused Israel of committing “war crimes” in its fight against the terrorists.

Whether Abdullah likes it or not, Israel and Jordan are fighting the same war.

It’s a war Washington is also fighting against the Houthis.

What do you think? Post a comment.

It’s a war against Tehran’s self-appointed “axis of resistance.”

The sooner every government facing an Iran-backed threat grasps this common thread, the sooner a wider strategy can begin to take shape.

Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Natalie Ecanow is a research analyst.

Twitter: @JSchanzer and @NatalieEcanow