Today and Yesterday – The Role of Drugs in Islamic Wars

“With a burgeoning population, rampant joblessness, paucity of social safety nets, and bleak prospects for young people, drug use is escalating beyond control; there are both a demand and a seamless supply [of illicit narcotics].” 

 Sania Nishtar, a federal minister in the Government of Pakistan.

The derivation of the word “assassins” provides a fascinating historical look at how drugs were used or purportedly used in the Islamic world to make soldiers and clandestine hitmen brave and fearless. In an online discussion on English Language and Usage: “Active in Persia and Syria from the 8th to 14th centuries, the original Assassins were members of the Nizaris, a [Shiite] Muslim group who opposed the [Sunni] Abbasid caliphate with threats of sudden assassination by their secret agents. Other populations of the area regarded the Nizaris as unorthodox outcasts, and from this attitude came one of the names for the group [حشاشين (ḥaššāšīn, ‘hashish users’), or أساسيون (ʾasāsiyyūn)] … which had become a general term of abuse… Marco Polo tells a tale of how young Assassins were given a potion and made to yearn for paradise – their reward for dying in action – by being given a life of pleasure. As the legends spread, the word [ʾasāsiyyūn] passed through French or Italian and appeared in English as assassin in the 16th century, already with meanings like ‘treacherous killer.’”

In the brutal, grizzly October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas soldiers on innocent Israeli concertgoers and civilians in the area (including decapitating little babies), many wondered what kind of heartless individuals could even bring themselves to perpetrate such horrors. Had they so dehumanized Jews that the did not even contemplate the horrors of their actions… or might there be another explanation? Most Westerners are oblivious to the pervasive use of narcotics in the Muslim world, not to mention a particularly enraging tactic to motivate soldiers prior to battle. It seems that October 7th was no exception.

Writing for the November 2nd USA Today, writers Josh Meyer and Kim Hjelmgaard explain what’s missing in most reports on that day’s invasion: “It's called many names. The jihadi drug, Captain Courage, the Poor Man’s Cocaine. But were Hamas terrorists high on the synthetic stimulant Captagon when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, brutally killing more than 1,400 people and kidnapping at least 220 more?

“Two Israeli security officials with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to USA TODAY that the methamphetamine-like substance was found on at least some Hamas members killed during or after the stunning raids on Israel, bolstering an Oct. 19 report by Israel's Channel 12 News that was not based on official sources… Officially, the Israeli Defense Forces or IDF declined to confirm or deny the use of Captagon by Hamas. ‘We can't comment on this matter,’ a spokesperson told USA TODAY.

“But the Israeli security officials said small bags of the drug, which can come in the form of a tablet or cocaine-like powder, were found along with bullets stashed in the pockets of clothes and tactical gear worn by some of the Hamas members who stormed two dozen communities along Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip. One of the officials said that small bottles of liquid containing a white fluid with traces of Captagon were also found on the Hamas militants.”

The systematic use of drugs by military units is clearly nothing new. In WII: “Nazi officials took high-performance drugs such as methamphetamine hydrochloride (crystal meth) and cocaine. German military units and aviators were dosed with the patent methamphetamine-based drug Pervitin (manufactured in Germany from 1937) to improve operational efficiency. And drugs such as Pervitin and metabolic stimulants were tried out on students, military recruits and, eventually, in concentration camps.” From Paul Weidling’s article History: Addition and the Rich, published in Nature 10/5/16. But the explosion of addiction in the Islamic world is a relatively recent and accelerating phenomenon. See such usage among Hamas fighters is particularly troublesome.

With conditions across the Middle East and Central Asia deteriorating rapidly, from regional conflicts, corrupt leadership and the desertification of once productive farmland from climate change, escape via drugs is now pervasive. Narcotics are even produced as a revenue source by desperate regional governments. While marijuana and locally grown opiates once dominated, the much less expensive Captagon is found everywhere. Find extreme desperation and poverty, and you will find Captagon. “When its addictive properties were found to outweigh its benefits, Captagon was phased out as an official pharmaceutical product in the 1980s under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and the World Health Organization.

“But by 2016, black market manufacturing of the drug was soaring in the Arabian peninsula and North Africa, in part because it was so easy to make, according to that report, which was published in the Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology Volume 119, Issue 2. ‘Unlike other drugs of abuse, the clandestine synthesis of fenethylline is simple,’ the report said, ‘using inexpensive laboratory instrumentation and raw materials legal to obtain.’… Millions of black market Captagon tablets were seized annually by 2016, representing one-third of the global amphetamines seizures, that report said. And in recent years, it has become a multibillion-dollar a year black-market drug that's widely used recreationally and by day laborers throughout the Middle East.

“About 80% of the world's supply of Captagon is now produced in Syria, according to a recent assessment by the British government, which has described its production and distribution as a ‘financial lifeline’ for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad… [They call it a “drug for narcolepsy, depression − and terrorism”].” USA Today. While drug use in the Western world is often viewed through the misleading rose-colored view of “recreational users,” the darker truth is that is the escape that many mired in poverty seek leads them to drug addiction. Just as overdoes of fentanyl in the United States kill 200 people a day, the use of aggression enhancing Captagon in Gaza, which seems to eliminate moral empathy, kills people in an entirely different way.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the complexity and stunningly despicable undercurrents within cadres of impoverished and desperate hordes, goaded by dangerous and unscrupulous autocratic leaders, never ceases to shock me.