Were Hamas militants high on Captagon during Israel attack?

Israel’s war with Hamas is in its 14th day as airstrikes continued to hit Gaza on Friday (20 October). The latest conflict escalated after the Palestinian group’s militants launched a multi-front attack on the West Asian nation on 7 October. A recent report in The Jerusalem Post citing Channel 12 has claimed that Hamas militants were under the influence of Captagon when they went on the 7 October rampage. Let’s take a closer look. Did Hamas militants use Captagon? According to Israeli news site, Channel 12, Captagon pills were found on the bodies of Hamas militants killed on Israeli soil. This drug helped the Hamas fighters to “commit heinous acts with a sense of calmness and indifference,” claimed The Jerusalem Post report. What is Captagon? Captagon is an amphetamine-type stimulant that is mass-produced in Syria and widely smuggled across West Asia. The currently used Captagon is a counterfeit version of a medicine first produced in Germany in the 1960s. These drugs were used to treat attention deficit disorders, narcolepsy and other conditions, as per an Al Jazeera report. [caption id=“attachment_13278202” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Greek authorities present confiscated Captagon amphetamine pills after dismantling a criminal ring near Elefsina, south west of Athens in 2017. Reuters File Photo[/caption] The original tablets had fenetylline, a synthetic drug of the phenethylamine family to which amphetamine also belongs, the report added. By the 1980s, several countries banned the drug because of its highly addictive nature. According to a 2018 report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction, new counterfeit tablets labelled Captagon started being produced in the 1990s to early 2000s in Bulgaria. These drugs were then smuggled by Balkan and Turkish criminal networks to the Arabian Peninsula, reported Al Jazeera. What does amphetamine do? Amphetamine is a powerful stimulator of the central nervous system, noted Medical News Today. As per a 2015 Vox report, amphetamine-based drugs provide “a boost of energy, enhance someone’s focus, let someone stay awake for longer periods of time, and produce a feeling of euphoria.” While they do not give someone “superhuman alertness, bravery, strength, or pain resistance”, the drugs, instead, could have a placebo effect on the person that may trigger erratic behaviours, the report added. Captagon is dubbed “the poor man’s cocaine” as it costs around $3 (Rs 250 approximately) to $25 (around Rs 2000) per tablet, according to a Bloomberg report. These pills, which can cause “delusions and a sense of invincibility”, have been linked to militants in Iraq and Syria, the report noted. According to BBC, the drug has serious side effects, such as psychosis and brain damage. Although people do not get addicted to prescription amphetamines when taken in the right dosage, addiction can occur when it is consumed to get high or improve performance, noted Medline Plus. “Addiction can lead to tolerance. Tolerance means you need more and more of the drug to get the same high feeling. And if you try to stop using, your mind and body may have reactions,” the article explained. Captagon first grabbed headlines in 2014 when it was reported that the drug was popular among the Islamic State (IS) and Syrian fighters to ramp up alertness and suppress appetite during battles, reported Indian Express. Crackdown on Captagon A 2014 Reuters report said that the 2011 civil war in Syria turned the nation into a “major” amphetamines producer as well as consumer. “Syrian government forces and rebel groups each say the other uses Captagon to endure protracted engagements without sleep, while clinicians say ordinary Syrians are increasingly experimenting with the pills, which sell for between $5 and $20,” Reuters reported at the time. Many reports have claimed that Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad and his associates have profited from the sale of these drugs which is approximately worth several billion dollars a year. Assad has rejected the allegations. According to the United States State Department and Treasury, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office and independent researchers, Captagon is mostly produced and trafficked by people and groups linked to Assad and his ally the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, reported Bloomberg. Since last year, several West Asian countries have increased efforts to curb the flow of the drug from Syria, noted Al Jazeera. Karam Shaar, a Syrian economist and researcher who has advised Western governments on Syria’s war economy, told Bloomberg that over a billion Captagon pills have been seized in the last three years with most headed for Saudi Arabia. Experts have warned that amid a crackdown by Saudi Arabia to stem the flow of the drug, smugglers could come up with new routes and markets, becoming a threat for Europe and the rest of the world, the Bloomberg report added. Amid fears that the drug could reach US shores, America introduced The Captagon Act last December mandating the country’s agencies to target the illicit trade.