Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will attend his first Arab League summit in 12 years in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah on Friday. His government’s controversial return to the bloc comes as Arab states seek to curtail Syria’s thriving trade in Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine known as the “poor man’s cocaine”.
The pills are known as “Abu Hilalain” in Arabic, meaning “father of the two crescent moons” due to their two moon-shaped logos. Produced mainly in Syria, the synthetic drug – better known by its trade name “Captagon” – contains the amphetamine-type stimulant fenethylline.
