Iraq seeks solutions against drugs

For seven years, 23-year-old Mohammed consumed around ten pills of Captagon daily, but he now seeks to break free from his drug addiction, which has become a pervasive crisis in war-torn Iraq.

Iraq, bordered by Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, has turned into a corridor for drug trafficking. However, drug consumption has worsened in recent years, prompting the government to search for solutions to the crisis, particularly through addressing drug addiction.

The most widespread type of drugs in Iraq is methamphetamine or "crystal," which generally comes from Afghanistan or Iran. There is also Captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant industrially produced in Syria before crossing the borders into Iraq and flooding the markets of wealthy Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, which constitutes the primary consumption market in the Middle East.

Currently, a rehabilitation hospital for addicts, opened by the Ministry of Health in April, is receiving about 40 patients who voluntarily came to the "Al-Qanah Social Rehabilitation Center."

Among them is Mohammed, who has been using Captagon since the age of 16, taking "10 or 12" pills a day, as he narrates under an alias. He explains that while working in a grocery store, his colleagues persuaded him to start using Captagon of the "zero one" type.

The young man, originally from Anbar Province in western Iraq, bordering Syria and Saudi Arabia, shares, "They use it in the store; it gives you energy and strength and prevents you from sleeping."

He adds that the pill, priced at two dollars, "is everywhere, easily accessible."

After spending his first two weeks at the center, he returned home. However, he decided to go back to the clinic to avoid relapsing. He says Captagon leads a person "either to prison or to death."



AFP