By CCHR International
November 24, 2015
Updated October 2023

In 2015, CNN, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Independent, and hundreds of news outlets reported that “The War on Drugs” has taken on a literal twist, with ISIS fighters being fueled by a stimulant drug known as Captagon—a pharmaceutical cousin of the ADHD drug, Adderall. Captagon is the trademark name for the stimulant fenethylline which contains amphetamine and also makes up 75% of the composition of Adderall.[1] It was used in the 1960s for the supposed treatment of “ADHD” before being banned in a number of countries. As The Boston Globe reported, Captagon is a “toxic fuel” that creates “super-human” fighters. The drug “quickly produces a euphoric intensity in users, allowing fighters to stay up for days, killing with a numb, reckless abandon.”[2]

A study on the drug published seven years ago by Greek toxicologists and forensic medicine specialists in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology noted that the drug had been originally used to treat hyperactivity in children, narcolepsy (a neurological disorder that disrupts sleep) and depression. It was also used for lack of drive, especially in elderly patients suffering from Parkinson’s and other organic diseases – but these indications for fenethylline were never approved in the U.S., as no investigational new drug application was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).[3] Its use has been banned because of the potential for abuse.[4] But then became a drug of abuse, and exended.

Psychiatric drugs have been commonly used to keep soldiers “combat-ready” and carry with it their own risks.  As WHYY-FM, a U.S. public radio station pointed “From the American Civil War to Syria, modern conflicts come equipped with addictive substances to numb the pain of combat.”[5]

However, to use psychotropic drugs to incite unbridled murderous actions is a more contemporary vile aspect, that has existed more prominently since WWII.  It reflects on the potential serious risks of these drugs to facilitate violence in both combatant and non-combatant situations. The use of amphetamines and other drugs by Nazi military leaders, fueled their aggression, grandiose ideations, and “paranoia,” and enabled them to “carry out heinous acts of violence against humanity,” according to the WHYY report.[6]

In 2020, Peter Andreas, the John Hay Professor of International Studies at Brown University, where he holds a joint appointment between the Department of Political Science and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affair, explored the relationship between warfare and mind-altering substances. His book, Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs, notes: “Amphetamines, the quintessential drug of the modern industrial age, arrived relatively late in the history of mind-altering substances—commercialized just in time for mass consumption during World War II.” Additionally, “With the possible exception of opium during the Opium Wars, no drug has ever received a bigger stimulus from armed conflict.”[7]

A November 2, 2015  article “Breaking Bad: The Stimulant Drugs That Link ISIS and the Nazis,” posted in Haaretz, the world’s leading English-language Website for news and analysis of the Middle East, points out, “ISIS is far from the first murderous group to drug its fighters before battle….The Persian Hashashin did it way back in the 11th century, as did Japanese kamikaze pilots, African militias, Chechen fighters and Nazi soldiers.”[8]

When French Special Forces officers raided the hotel room of  the now captured and imprisoned ISIS leader Salah Abdelsalam in the Paris suburb of Alfortville in 2015, Captagon was reportedly found, according to Haaretz news.[9] Like other amphetamines, it can cause euphoria, addiction, lowered inhibitions, and at higher doses, psychosis, paranoia, and violent aggression.[10]

A 2020 London research paper on “Pharmacological performance enhancement and the military Exploring an ethical and legal framework for ‘supersoldiers,’” noted Captagon has been used “to induce fearlessness, suppress pain and achieve exceptional human energy, allowing combatants to stay awake for days and fight with a ‘reckless abandon.”[11] Of note, drugs don’t create violent ideologies, but ideological groups can use the drugs to help create violent mindsets.

In 2023, Captagon was again in the news, implicated in mass murder in the Middle East, with The Telegraph in the UK and other media internationally writing, “Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-like drug that has plagued the Middle East in recent years—it has been taken by fighters who say it gives them a feeling of invincibility on the frontlines.”[12] The New York Post and other media called it “cocaine for the poor,” or “poor man’s cocaine,” which allows users to commit “atrocities with a calm demeanor while keeping them alert and suppressing their appetites.”[13]

According to a professor who studies addiction from a school of pharmacy, Captagon is a drug of choice because of the “need to fight for extended periods of time on little sleep without fatigue and without a significant decrease in alertness or performance.” Furthermore, amphetamines – as stimulants – are stronger and more potent than opiates. Those who take them “feel they are the king of the world, with no inhibitions. Opiates make users feel more euphoric and violent, but their motivation to do evil is less than that caused by amphetamines.”[14]

Captagon is also a drug of abuse. The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs warns that “Fenethylline, commonly known by the trademark name Captagon, is a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant that has been clandestinely produced in southern Europe and trafficked through Turkey to the consumer markets on the Arabian Peninsula. It is one of the most popular drugs of abuse among the young affluent populations of the Middle East.” In the U.S. fenethylline has been a controlled substance on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act since 1981, meaning it does not have an accepted medical use and is not approved for distribution.[15] 

So serious are the drug’s effects and impact on terrorist groups that in September 2022, Congress introduced The Captagon Act, designed to disrupt and dismantle the Captagon trade and narcotics networks.[16]  In September 2023, The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drugs Addiction issued a report on Captigon trafficking, which found, “The illicit drug found in captagon tablets seized and analyzed in the EU is, almost exclusively, amphetamine.” The analysis also found evidence of the production of Captagon tablets inside Europe. This takes place mainly in the Netherlands, where the majority of the amphetamine for the European market is made.[17]

• The multimillion-dollar Captagon trade is a fixture of the Middle East’s black markets.[18] It sells illegally for $5-$20 a pill.[19]
• In June 2023, AP news reported that for Arab states, halting the Captagon trade is a high priority. “Hundreds of millions of pills have been smuggled over the years into Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, where the drug is used recreationally and by people with physically demanding jobs to keep them alert.”[20]
• CNN said that one 19-year-old fighter named Kareem, who said he fought alongside ISIS for more than a year, said: “They gave us drugs, hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die.”[21]
• A former Free Syrian Army member said when an officer told fighters to take the drug for the first time, it “felt like if there were ten people in front of you, you could catch them and kill them.”[22]
• Two ISIS fighters caught in Turkey reported being given Captagon. One, Ali Daud, 23, told a local newspaper: “It makes us feel big, strong, as if looking at the battle from above. You think the tanks are little birds that you can destroy with your sword. We took the drug only when we went into battle, for maximum effect.”[23]
• Another described how “There was no fear anymore after I took Captagon.”[24]
• As Haaretz reported, the issue of soldiers being drugged for battle is not uncommon: The German military was supplied with millions of methamphetamine tablets called Pervitin during WWII. The substance increased a willingness to take risks, while reducing sensitivity to pain, hunger, thirst and the need for sleep. In 1939, the drug was tested on 90 university students by a military doctor who concluded that Pervitin could help the Nazi armed forces to win the war.[25]
• In fact, it was the German pharmaceutical company Degussa AG that introduced fenethylline (Captagon) in 1961 as a treatment for ADHD and usage became prevalent across the world, according to George Washington University researchers in a May 2015 paper investigating Captagon trafficking by Syrian War Militias.[26]
• Degussa AG is infamous for also inventing and manufacturing Zyklon B, used to gas and murder millions of people in the Nazi gas chambers.[27] (I.G. Farben, whose executives were tried for war crimes, owned the patent for the drug and had shares in Degussa.)[28]
• In WWII, the Japanese called the war stimulants “senryoku zokyo zai” or “drug to inspire the fighting spirits.” According to Peter Andreas, “The Japanese imperial government sought to give its fighting capacity a pharmacological edge, and so it contracted out methamphetamine production to domestic pharmaceutical companies for use during the war effort,” and “Pilots, soldiers, naval crews, and laborers were all routinely pushed beyond their natural limits to stay awake longer and work harder. In this context, taking stimulants was seen as a patriotic duty.” Kamikaze pilots took large doses of methamphetamine, via injection, before their suicide missions. They were also given pep pills stamped with the crest of the emperor. “These consisted of methamphetamine mixed with green tea powder and were called Totsugeki-Jo or Tokkou-Jo, known otherwise as ‘storming tablets.’” Political scientist Lukasz Kamienski noted that after the war: “The pharmaceutical industry advertised stimulants as a perfect means of boosting the war-weary population and restoring confidence after a painful and debilitating defeat.”[29]

• Genocidal killers in Bosnia and Kosovo drank heavily to prepare for the ethnic-cleansing atrocities they would subsequently commit.[30]

• Child soldiers in Africa are commonly given a mixture called brown-brown which is cocaine and gunpowder. This is ingested by inhaling it into the nostrils a method that rapidly affects the user and is conducive to addiction. [31]

Prescription psychotropic drugs have also been used since the earliest of wars in an effort to keep fighters combat-ready, while they face often untenable conditions.  According to the WHYY-FM’s report:

• During the American Civil War soldiers were often given alcohol prior to battle as a form of liquid courage and a means of steadying their nerves.

During World War II,amphetamines were used extensively by forces on each side of the conflict including Allies. [32]

• In the UK, the Royal Air Force (RAF) provided aircrews with amphetamines during WWII, in the form of Benzedrine ‘wakey-wakey pills,’ to promote wakefulness when sleep was a threat to performance. The British Army also provided amphetamines to its soldiers for “consciousness-altering properties,” which was to lift the mood, courage and determination of troops. [33]

The Vietnam War became the first true ‘pharmacological war,’ so called because of the unprecedented consumption of drugs by the US military during the conflict. American troops in Vietnam were issued with medical kits containing painkillers, codeine (an opiate) and amphetamines, and before departing on long-range patrols soldiers received injections of anabolic steroids. A 1971 U.S. government report revealed that 225 million tablets of stimulants, mostly the amphetamine Dexedrine, had been provided to U.S. armed forces in Vietnam between 1966 and 1969.[34] Add to that GIs were abusing drugs. It was reported that 51% were smoking marijuana while 31% had tried psychedelic drugs such as LSD and 28% had used hard drugs including heroin and cocaine. [35]As such, the use of psychotropic drugs in war has a long history, as soldiers and their commanders have sought to counter human weaknesses in conflict situations. Mental and physical fatigue, fluctuating psychological confidence or muscular strength” are all problems to overcome, according to the London study.[36]

Additionally, a study published in the 11 April 2020 edition of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry about the psychopharmaceutical use among soldiers in the U.S. noted, “With the United States military stretched thin in the ‘global war on terror,’ military officials have embraced psychopharmaceuticals in the effort to enable more troops to remain ‘mission-capable.’…” It pointed out that the Army “continues to lead all other military branches in the polypharmacy use of psychotropics, central nervous system depressant medications and opioids.” In the 1990s, SSRI antidepressants were incorporated into military garrison psychiatric practice at permanent military posts and bases. The authors wrote that “an unprecedented pattern of prolonged and repeated deployments has encouraged the use of psychiatric medications to stretch further an already taut military force.”[37]

The Psychotropic Drug Push in Society

• Adderall, with the same amphetamine base as Captagon, has adverse effects that include hallucinations, mania, aggression, hostility, and psychotic episodes.[38] Adderall’s manufacturer told a court that psychotic episodes were a rare side effect of this class of stimulants after University of North Dakota student Ryan Ehlis, shot and killed his five-week-old daughter in 1999 after taking Adderall for 10 days. “I had no inkling or ability to say ‘What’s the matter with me?’ or ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ That was not there at all,” Ehlis said.[39]
• A PLOS One study found 25 psychotropic drugs were linked to violence, including homicide, homicidal ideation, physical assault, physical abuse or violence related symptoms. Amphetamines are the fourth-highest pills linked to violence on that list.[40]

Worldwide, more than 49 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs cite side effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, and dozens of high profile shootings/killings are tied to psychiatric drug use.

• At least 39 school shootings and/or school-related acts of violence have been committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs resulting in 169 wounded and 79 killed.

There are 64 other acts of senseless violence committed by individuals taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs have resulted in 532 dead and 973 wounded, including another tragedy that struck France, when Andreas Lubitz, the pilot who deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane in a remote, mountainous area of Southern France killing all 150 people on board. He was found to be taking drugs for depression, anxiety and panic attacks, including lorazepam and an antidepressant. With mainstream media now reporting on prescription drugs creating “super-soldiers” which aid in acts of terrorism, the issue of psychiatric drugs and their well-documented link to violence is finally being mentioned. But we are far from the government investigations that are mandatory for our growing prescription drug society.

In an article published in The Telegraph, entitled, “Is this the hidden link behind all these insane acts of violence?” journalist Christopher Brooker stated, “It’s astonishing just how many of those responsible for these psychotic acts of violence have taken mind-altering drugs.” Brooker’s most pertinent question remains unanswered, “How much longer does it need to be asked why this possible link to psychotic violence is not being properly investigated?”

That is the question.

References:

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140325024636/http://www.smarternootropics.com/2014/01/captagon-the-smart-drug-fuelling-syrias-civil-war/

[2] “The tiny pill fueling Syria’s war and turning fighters into superhuman soldiers,” The Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/19/the-tiny-pill-fueling-syrias-war-and-turning-fighters-into-super-human-soldiers/; “Powerful pill is called toxic fuel for fighters in Syrian war: Production high despite its ban in many nations,” The Boston Globe, 21 Nov. 2015, https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2015/11/21/the-tiny-pill-fueling-syria-war-and-turning-fighters-into-superhuman-soldiers/gLUkphVvyEN8Y5WzzowNhL/story.html

[3] Hamas terrorists took Captagon to help them murder and torture victims: Hamas terrorists killed by Israeli soldiers were found to carry bags of synthetic amphetamine pills in their pockets, The Jerusalem Post, 22 Oct. 2023, https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-769646

[4] https://www.acs.org/molecule-of-the-week/archive/f/fenethylline-hydrochloride.html

[5] “For every war, an abused drug,” WHYY-FM public radio station, Pennsylvania, April 2020, https://whyy.org/segments/drugs-and-war-interview/

[6] “For every war, an abused drug,” WHYY-FM public radio station, Pennsylvania, April 2020, https://whyy.org/segments/drugs-and-war-interview/

[7] Peter Andreas, “The World War II “Wonder Drug” That Never Left Japan: For Workers and Soldiers, Taking Methamphetamine Was a Patriotic Duty That Hooked a Generation,” Zocala, 8 Jan. 2020, https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/01/08/the-world-war-ii-wonder-drug-that-never-left-japan/ideas/essay/

[8] “Breaking Bad: The Stimulant Drugs That Link ISIS and the Nazis,” Harretz, 24 Nov. 2015, http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.687547

[9] “Breaking Bad: The Stimulant Drugs That Link ISIS and the Nazis,” Harretz, 24 Nov. 2015, http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.687547

[10] Will Nichols and Max Kravitz, “Soldiers of Abu Hilalain: An Investigation into Captagon Trafficking by Syrian War Militias and What It Means for U.S. Foreign Policy,” May 2015, p. 21

[11] “Pharmacological performance enhancement and the military Exploring an ethical and legal framework for ‘supersoldiers,’” Chatham House, Nov. 2022

[12] “Hamas fighters ‘took “poor man’s cocaine” drug called Captagon to boost their alertness and make them feel invincible before Israel massacre’” Daily Mail.com, 19 Oct. 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12650757/Hamas-fighters-took-poor-mans-cocaine-drug-called-Captagon-boost-alertness-make-feel-invincible-Israel-massacre.html

[13]“Hamas terrorists were high on ‘poor man’s cocaine’ during attack: report, referring to Captagon,” The New York Post, 23 Oct. 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/10/23/hamas-terrorists-were-high-on-poor-mans-cocaine-report/; “Hamas operatives were reportedly high on ‘poor man’s cocaine’: Know all about the synthetic drug Captagon: Captagon, often referred to as the “poor man’s cocaine,” is a powerful stimulant that induces feelings of calmness and indifference in its users,” bt Business Today, 21 Oct. 2023, https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/world/story/hamas-operatives-were-reportedly-high-on-poor-mans-cocaine-know-all-about-the-synthetic-drug-captagon-402858-2023-10-21

[14] Hamas terrorists took Captagon to help them murder and torture victims: Hamas terrorists killed by Israeli soldiers were found to carry bags of synthetic amphetamine pills in their pockets, The Jerusalem Post, 22 Oct. 2023, https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-769646

[15] https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/fenethylline-and-middle-east-brief-summary

[16] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6265/text

[17] https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/news/2023/7/new-report-shows-europe-key-transhipment-area-captagon-bound-arabian-peninsula_en

[18] “Syria’s Speed Freaks, Jihad Junkies, and Captagon Cartels,” Foreign Policy, 19 Nov. 2015, http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/19/syria-isis-captagon-lebanon-assad/

[19] “The tiny pill fueling Syria’s war and turning fighters into superhuman soldiers,” The Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/19/the-tiny-pill-fueling-syrias-war-and-turning-fighters-into-super-human-soldiers/

[20] https://apnews.com/article/captagon-syria-assad-drugs-jordan-saudi-arabia-10920ac4cb80eda181835f9a64bf7dc0

[21] “Syria Fighters may be fueled by amphetamines,” CNN, 20 Nov. 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/20/world/syria-fighters-amphetamine/

[22] “Syria’s Speed Freaks, Jihad Junkies, and Captagon Cartels,” Foreign Policy, 19 Nov. 2015, http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/19/syria-isis-captagon-lebanon-assad/

[23] “Breaking Bad: The Stimulant Drugs That Link ISIS and the Nazis,” Haaretz, 23 Nov. 2015, http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.687547

[24] “The tiny pill fueling Syria’s war and turning fighters into superhuman soldiers,” The Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/19/the-tiny-pill-fueling-syrias-war-and-turning-fighters-into-super-human-soldiers/

[25] Andreas Ulrich, “The Nazi Death Machine: Hitler’s Drugged Soldiers,” Speigel online, 6 May 2015, http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-nazi-death-machine-hitler-s-drugged-soldiers-a-354606.html

[26] Will Nichols and Max Kravitz, “Soldiers of Abu Hilalain: An Investigation into Captagon Trafficking by Syrian War Militias and What It Means for U.S. Foreign Policy,” May 2015, p. 19

[27] https://web.archive.org/web/20140325024636/http://www.smarternootropics.com/2014/01/captagon-the-smart-drug-fuelling-syrias-civil-war/

[28] http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_igfarben08.htm

[29] Peter Andreas, “The World War II “Wonder Drug” That Never Left Japan: For Workers and Soldiers, Taking Methamphetamine Was a Patriotic Duty That Hooked a Generation,” Zocala, 8 Jan. 2020, https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/01/08/the-world-war-ii-wonder-drug-that-never-left-japan/ideas/essay/

[30] “For every war, an abused drug,” WHYY-FM public radio station, Pennsylvania, April 2020, https://whyy.org/segments/drugs-and-war-interview/

[31] “For every war, an abused drug,” WHYY-FM public radio station, Pennsylvania, April 2020, https://whyy.org/segments/drugs-and-war-interview/

[32] “For every war, an abused drug,” WHYY-FM public radio station, Pennsylvania, April 2020, https://whyy.org/segments/drugs-and-war-interview/

[33] “Pharmacological performance enhancement and the military Exploring an ethical and legal framework for ‘supersoldiers,’” Chatham House, Nov. 2022.

[34] “Pharmacological performance enhancement and the military Exploring an ethical and legal framework for ‘supersoldiers,’” Chatham House, Nov. 2022.

[35] https://www.warhistoryonline.com/vietnam-war/drugs-music-and-vietnam.html

[36] “Pharmacological performance enhancement and the military Exploring an ethical and legal framework for ‘supersoldiers,’” Chatham House, Nov. 2022.

[37] “Medication by Proxy: The Devolution of Psychiatric Power and Shared Accountability to Psychopharmaceutical Use Among Soldiers in America’s Post-9/11 Wars,” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 11 April 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7497448/

[38] http://www.drugs.com/adderall.html

[39] “Out of Control: Enough Warning,” 48 Hours (CBS), Nov. 2007, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/out-of-control-enough-warning/; “Prescription: concentration. The number of prescriptions for Adderall is rising, as is the number of students using the drug for academic and recreational purposes,” Oregon Daily Emerald, 2 May 2005; “Man who Shot Child Sues Drug Company,” Herald, 23 Sept. 2000

[40] Thomas J. Moore, Joseph Glenmullen, Curt D. Furberg, “Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others,” PLOS One, 14 De c. 2010, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015337, http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0015337