Captagon pills exemplify the tragedy in Syria

The wider implications of Syria's civil war include opportunists who use the lack of rule of law to pursue illicit activities like drug production for the Gulf market.

At a time when millions of displaced Syrians are living in miserable circumstances, either within the country or as refugees in neighbouring nations, it might seem inappropriate to look at the long-term implications of the civil war. However these wider and deeper impacts reflect the collapse of the rule of law in Syria and underscore the need to find a solution to the conflict.

Captagon, a form of amphetamine that was once produced for therapeutic use, exemplifies this. Invented in Germany in the 1960s to treat hyperactive children, legitimate production ceased in the 1980s, in part because it proved to be highly addictive. Being both psychotropic in nature and cheap and easy to manufacture, its illicit production continued, particularly in the Middle East.

The Syrian civil war has proved a boon to those who produce captagon and a bane to law enforcement agencies, particularly in the Gulf region. Producers who moved to Syria have been able to create vast quantities of the drug without fear of arrest and the combatants in the war are able to both use it personally to keep alert and also as a source of revenue for their campaigns. Both pro- and anti-Assad forces were linked to captagon production in a recent investigation conducted by Reuters and Time magazine, and the Gulf nations were cited are a major destination, as demonstrated by the Dubai police's seizure last month of 4.6 million captagon pills, with an estimated street value of Dh115 million.

This exploitation of a power vacuum is nothing new. In every conflict zone, opportunists have exploited the lack of law enforcement. Once the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan, it became a haven for both heroin production and as a base for terror groups like Al Qaeda. A more recent example can be found in Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia. With the Serbian police force having been ejected in the war and with the UN troops having no wider mandate beyond peacekeeping, the state became a hub for drug- and human- trafficking, at one point being a transit point for up to 40 per cent of the heroin in Europe and North America.

It would be foolish to think that Syria will not follow this pattern. Even when hostilities cease, the vacuum of authority will continue and so will the illicit production of captagon. As in Afghanistan and Kosovo, the tragedy will spread far beyond its borders, which is why what is at stake in Syria is so much bigger than just a civil war.