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During its final year in power, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad showed signs of curbing captagon trafficking, likely as a temporary concession to facilitate normalization of relations with Gulf states. Using data from New Lines’ Captagon Trade Project, Dr. Karam Shaar, Caroline Rose, and Roaa Obaid track and analyze trends for trade of the drug and explain how the regime’s crackdown – and its ouster at the end of the year – do not mean that production and trade of the drug will cease. Rather, these developments will set the course for a series of colossal changes that will make it harder for governments, health care practitioners, law enforcement officers, and experts to monitor and address the trade.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not an official policy or position of the New Lines Institute.
