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=> Turkey seizes 11 million pills of 'Syria war drug'

Turkey seizes 11 million pills of 'Syria war drug'

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Turkey seizes 11 million pills of 'Syria war drug': reports The Turkish authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war, reports said Friday Summary: The Turkish authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war, reports said Friday. Anti-narcotics police confiscated over 10.9 million pills weighing almost two tonnes in two separate raids in the Hatay region on the border with Syria... Author AFP Posted November 20, 2015 http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/afp/2015/11/syria-conflict-turkey-crime-drugs.html Anti-narcotics police confiscated over 10.9 million pills weighing almost two tonnes in two separate raids in the Hatay region on the border with Syria this week, the official Anatolia news agency and Hurriyet daily quoted the interior ministry as saying. Captagon, based on the amphetamine phenethylline (also spelt Fenethylline), a synthetic stimulant, is a hugely popular drug in the Middle East and produced in Syria. It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fueling Syria's civil war since its production provides income for the warring factions and also keeps fighters awake and energized over long periods. Large quantities of the drug are also illegally smuggled abroad, with Saudi Arabia a major market where the authorities repeatedly report seizures. The reports said that 7.3 captagon pills were seized in one raid and were set to be shipped to Gulf countries by sea hidden in 1,300 oil filters. Another 3.6 million pills were seized in a depot, the reports added.I One Syrian citizen and two Turkish nationals have been detained on suspicion of trying to organize the smuggling, the reports said. Captagon is classified by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as an "amphetamine type stimulant" and usually blends amphetamine, caffeine and other substances. Lebanese authorities this month charged a Saudi prince and nine others with drug trafficking, after nearly two tonnes of captagon capsules and cocaine were found waiting to be loaded onto their private plane at Beirut airport. -- This article's brief historical summary describes how from ancient times, those in positions of power have always sought "performance enhancers". Amphetamines, capitalism's first 'performance enhancing' drug By Gary Wilson Published Dec 20, 2007 http://www.workers.org/2007/us/amphetamines-1227/ Performance enhancers may have been used in almost all competitive sports since the first Olympics in ancient Greece. But the rise of the capitalist profit system and the giant pharmaceutical monopolies changed performance enhancement into its opposite. The most important enhancement has become the performance of the corporations’ profits. Yu-Hsuan Lee at Harvard has documented that there are records of the use of performance enhancing drugs going as far back as ancient times. Lee cites, “The Greek physician, Galen, is reputed to have prescribed ‘the rear hooves of an Abyssinian ass, ground up, boiled in oil, and favored with rose hips and rose petals’ to improve performance.” Lee then adds, “Ancient Olympic athletes attempted to boost testosterone (the hormone that anabolic steroids are designed to produce) by eating sheep testicles, a prime source for testosterone.” Modern chemistry introduced the possibility of more concentrated forms of enhancers, now commonly called drugs and steroids. A Romanian chemist in Berlin synthesized amphetamines from the stimulating herb Ma Huang in 1887. Nothing much came of it. Then in the 1930s the U.S. pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline & French (now GlaxoSmithKline) started marketing it as Benzedrine. Officially it was sold as a medical treatment for narcolepsy. Unofficially it was one of the first drugs being pushed as a performance enhancer. German athletes in the 1936 Olympics were given amphetamine injections, as was Adolph Hitler. “In the 1936 Olympic Games films, Hitler can be seen moving his hands back and forth on his upper legs in a way that’s consistent with the ‘stereotypical behavior,’ of heavy amphetamine use,” says a report on “Meth in the military.” (www.allpositiveoptions.com) The online Science Encyclopedia says that amphetamine use was widespread in World War II. “Soldiers on both sides were given large amounts of amphetamines as a way of fighting fatigue and boosting morale. The British issued 72 million tablets to the armed forces. Records also show that Japanese Kamikaze pilots—who crashed their bomb-laden planes into enemy ships—and German Panzer troops were given large doses of the drug to motivate their fighting spirit. Hitler’s own medical records show that he received eight injections a day of methamphetamine, a drug known to create paranoia and unpredictable behavior when administered in large dosages.” (science.jrank.org) Hitler is not the only government head known to have regularly used amphetamines. John F. Kennedy also received injections from his physician. After World War II, Smith, Kline & French emerged as a key player in the military-industrial complex, making a killing in the drugs it sold to the military. After the war, new markets were created for this “performance enhancer,” which was being pushed to workers throughout industry—from steelworkers facing fatigue on their grueling shifts, to auto workers on the assembly line, to long-distance truck drivers. Then during the Vietnam War, the U.S. troops were flooded with easily available amphetamines, though by that time the drug had become an allegedly controlled substance because its destructive effects were well established. It is now known that all too frequently the war crimes committed by U.S., German, British and Japanese troops during World War II were the result of the maniacal effects of drugs like the amphetamines. The same is true for the U.S. troops in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The soldiers were being given drugs that were destroying both their bodies and their minds, but kept them going as fighting machines. The real crime was committed by GlaxoSmithKline and the other capitalist pharmaceutical conglomerates, which pushed the drugs and later the steroids that raised their profit line while destroying so many lives. None of this will change until the system is changed to make medicines and drugs that are only to meet peoples' needs, not pharmaceutical company profits. Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011 Email: ww@workers.org Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net Support independent news DONATE --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

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