Hamas terrorists took Captagon to help them murder and torture victims
Source: JPost.com – Homepage
As if Hamas terrorists were not monstrous enough, their handlers gave them bags of Captagon – a synthetic, amphetamine-type stimulant known on the Arabic drug market as “Abu al-Hilalain” and consumed like candy to endure in battle and promotes feelings of rage, irritability, and impatience that encourage terrorists to murder and torture victims.
Known generically as fenethylline, it is trafficked through Turkey to the Middle East. According to authorities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, the use of fenethylline is prevalent among their younger, affluent citizens. Captagon, used in Saudi Arabia since the late 1980s, is one of the most popular drugs of abuse among the young affluent populations in Arab countries where students use it to stay away before final exams or women use it as an anorectic agent to lose weight.
Prof. Rami Yaka – head of Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine’s School of Pharmacy, who is a researcher on addiction, told The Jerusalem Post that amphetamines – as stimulants – are stronger and more potent than opiates. “Those to take them feel they are the king of the world, with no inhibitions. Opiates make users feel more euphoric and violent, but their motivation to do evil is less than that caused by amphetamines.” He added that the infamous Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler, whose directives have now been adopted by Hamas, regularly consumed a “cocktail” of amphetamines and opiates.
In small-to-moderate doses, Captagon raises blood pressure, body temperature, and breathing rate. Other side effects that have been experienced by regular users include blurred vision and dizziness. mouth dryness, breathing difficulties, irregular heartbeat, gastrointestinal symptoms, muscle and/or joint pain, muscle cramping, anxiety, mood swings, confusion, feelings of anger or rage, irritability and impatience
Over the long term, amphetamine use can have a number of side effects, including tiredness, depression, insomnia, toxicity to the heart and blood vessels, and malnutrition.
The US Department of Justice reports that the drug does not have an accepted medical use in that country and is not approved for distribution. As available stocks of diverted fenethylline are depleted and the availability of chemicals for the clandestine production of the drug fluctuates, increasing amounts of counterfeit Captagon will likely become available.
A study on the drug was published seven years ago by Greek toxicologists and forensic medicine specialists in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology under the title “Fenethylline (Captagon) Abuse – Local Problems from an Old Drug Become Universal.”
Maria Katselou, Ioannis Papoutsis, Panagiota Nikolaou, Samir Qammaz, Chara Spiliopoulou, and Sotiris Athanaselis noted that it had been used to treat hyperactivity disorders in children, narcolepsy (a neurological disorder disrupting the brain’s ability to control sleep-wake cycles, causing sufferers to feel very sleepy through much of the day) and depression. As Captagon, it has also been used as a drug of abuse and can be manufactured cheaply in labs with raw materials that are sold legally.
Over the past years, a significant number of seizures of secret labs in several countries like Bulgaria, Slovenia Serbia-Montenegro, and Turkey have been reported by Interpol and International Narcotics Control Board. These laboratories varied in production capacity as far as the equipment and the produced quantity are concerned.
Captagon use rampant in the Arab world
“The primary drug market for fenethylline (as Captagon) has traditionally been countries located on the Arabian Peninsula but also North Africa since 2013. In Arab countries, millions of Captagon tablets are seized every year which represents one-third of global amphetamines seizures within a year. Furthermore, three of four patients treated for drug problems in Saudi Arabia are addicted to amphetamines, almost exclusively in the form of Captagon,” they wrote. “Continuous community alertness is needed to tackle this current growing phenomenon.”
Many of counterfeit “Captagon” tablets contain other amphetamine derivatives that are easier to produce but are pressed and stamped to look like Captagon pills. Some counterfeit pills that were analyzed did contain fenethylline, indicating that illicit production of this drug continues to take place. These illicit pills often contain a mix of amphetamines, caffeine, and various fillers.
In 1981, 962,000 Captagon tablets ordered by a Lebanese employee of a Beirut company were seized by German authorities; they turned out to be counterfeit. Two years later, 400,000 counterfeit boxes of the drug along with 4.5 million counterfeit Captagon tablets were also confiscated by German police before they were to be shipped to the Near East.
Fenethylline was first synthesized by Chemiewerk Homburg, a subsidiary of specialty chemicals company German Degussa AG in 1961 as a part of an investigational program on side effects of theophylline derivatives and particularly on the lungs, heart, and central nervous system. “It was used in Europe for over two decades as a milder alternative to amphetamine and related compounds and as a non-prescription psychostimulant and analeptic agent marketed under the brand name Captagon. The patent for its production was granted in 1962.”
It was also used in lack of drive, especially in elderly patients suffering from Parkinson’s and other organic diseases – but these indications for fenethylline were never approved in the US, as no investigational new drug application was submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Although illegal, it continues to be available among terrorist groups, especially in Syria, which holds a strategic position at a crossroads in the Middle East and was traditionally the major producer, exporter, and consumer of amphetamines, including Captagon. In May 2021, the British newspaper The Guardian described the effects of Captagon production in Syria on the economy as a “dirty business that is creating a near-narco-state. Drug money flowing into Syria is destabilizing legitimate businesses, positioning it as the global center of Captagon production, with increased industrialization, adaptation, and technical sophistication.
Despite the fact that fenethylline was officially banned in Jordan in 1988 and is no longer clinically used, an increase in the number of Captagon abusers has been reported. The trafficking and use of the drug were also detected in North Africa a decade ago.
The drug is popular among terrorist handlers and their murderous teams that need to fight for extended periods of time on little sleep without fatigue and without a significant decrease in alertness or performance. Thus, it helps terrorists fight longer and harder with less concern for their own health and well-being while resisting or ignoring higher levels of pain, the researchers wrote.
It is also believed to be used by Islamic State terrorists alone or along with other hallucinogenic pills to boost their fervor and go to battle without caring whether to live or die.
A drug control officer in the central city of Homs in western Syria fighters’ behavior under the influence of Captagon: “We would beat them, and they wouldn’t feel the pain. Many of them would laugh while we were dealing them heavy blows.”
Captagon became infamous eight years ago when it was discovered to be used by ISIS fighters to suppress fear prior to carrying out terrorist operations. As the influence of terrorist organizations like ISIS declined, Syria and Lebanon took over and began producing and distributing the drug on a large scale.
Channel 12 TV’s Nir Dvori reported a few days ago that Captagon pills were recovered from the pockets of dead Hamas terrorists who carried out the surprise incursion on Israel on October 7. He said that Gaza has become a popular market for the drug, especially among addicted youths.
The original article: belongs to JPost.com – Homepage .