The First Regional Forum in Combating Narcotics and Exchanging Information will host a number of national, regional and international speakers. According to Hana Al-Furaih of the anti-narcotics office, more than 4.3 million students of both genders benefit from the department’s awareness programs.
While the government offers limited data on the number and demographic profile of Saudi drug addicts, it does offer regular information on the number of drug busts that indicate the demand for illicit substances by Saudis and foreign residents.
For example, last week alone officials detained 195 suspected traffickers, netting eight million Captagon pills, 2.7 tons of hashish and 20 kg of uncut heroin.
In a 2006 report, the General Presidency for Combating Narcotics claimed that Saudi Arabia’s share of global Captagon busts was 28 percent. Captagon is the trademark name for the synthetic amphetamine fenethyllene, which was once used to treat hyper-kinetic children but has been banned in most countries since 1986.
Captagon sold on the street today is often made in clandestine factories from amphetamine derivatives and stamped to resemble the Captagon brand. Because of the unknown and widely ranging amphetamine derivatives and methods used to make the pills, they are considered very dangerous to abuse.
Captagon is popular among youths in the Middle East, used as an appetite suppressor (often by young women), to stay alert during final-exams or simply to have the stimulating effect. Drug trafficking is a capital crime in Saudi Arabia, based on the Shariah concept of hiraba, where a crime is deemed socially dangerous enough to justify harsh penalties.
