Opinion

Stop the Captagon drug barons

February 23, 2018
Stop the Captagon drug barons

Abdulaziz Al-Suwayed

Al-Hayat newspaper

I don’t know how much the government spends on fighting drugs and the damage they cause to society. The efforts made to fight drug smuggling and the rehabilitation of addicts prove that drugs ruin people’s lives in many ways.

Captagon is one of the most dangerous drugs being smuggled into Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. Smugglers are constantly trying to outsmart authorities by resorting to new methods of disguising contraband like stuffing Captagon pills inside fruits and vegetables and other goods and products.

The Lebanese news site Janoubia recently reported on 60 factories that manufacture Captagon in Lebanon to be shipped to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. It also reported that the manufacturing of Captagon pills began in Syria and it is no secret that these factories are protected by the government of Bashar Al-Assad.

There are a lot of questions that arise from this report. For example, how are these factories able to import the machinery needed to manufacture Captagon? Also, since the money received from the sale of Captagon is being funneled to terrorist groups in the region, why haven’t Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries acted against the government of Lebanon for failing to stop drug barons from operating on its territory?

Since this is a matter of security and keeping members of our society safe from drugs, the longer it takes governments in the region to act, the greater the effects of these drugs on society.


February 23, 2018
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