ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - About 300 kilograms of narcotics and millions of tablets have been seized in Iraq in the first eight months of the year, state media reported on Sunday as drug use sees a rise in the war-torn country.
Three hundred kilograms of different narcotics and 14 million “captagon pills and psychotropic substances” were seized in the first eight months of the year, INA reported, citing the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in Iraq’s Ministry of Interior.
Containing an amphetamine-type stimulant, captagon was the name of a trade drug patented in Germany in the early 1960s. It was used to treat attention deficit, narcolepsy, and other conditions before it was banned.
Syria became the main supplier of the illicit captagon pills which began spreading across the Middle East following the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia are the main consumers of the substance, according to AFP.
Over 1,350 people were arrested for dealing and using drugs in August only, increasing the number of arrestees affiliated with drugs to 11 thousand since the start of the year, the directorate added.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have seen an increase in drug trafficking and use. Numbers have been on the rise since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The directorate in June said it had arrested more than 20,000 drug users and seized millions of narcotic pills and more than 500,000 kilos of psychotropic substances during the last two years and a half.
Two health workers were arrested in Basra for drug dealing late last month.
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