Drug Abuse in the Middle East A focus on Syria Husam Abazid “The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy” Paracelsus in the 16th century Contents Introduction ....................................................................................... 3 Drug Abuse: An Overview .................................................................... 3 Types of Abused Drugs and Substances ...................................................... 3 Consequences of Drug Abuse ................................................................ 4 Drug Abuse in the Middle East .................................................................. 4 An Overview .................................................................................. 4 Motivations and Factors Responsible for Substance Abuse in the Middle East ............ 5 Researches about Substance Abuse in the Middle East ...................................... 6 Stimulants ..................................................................................... 6 Captagon ...................................................................................... 7 Opioids ........................................................................................ 8 Alcohol ........................................................................................ 9 Cannabis (Marijuana) ......................................................................... 9 Sedative Hypnotics ............................................................................ 10 Tobacco ........................................................................................ 11 Miscellaneous Studies ......................................................................... 11 Drug Abuse in Syria .............................................................................. 12 Impact of the Syrian Civil War ............................................................... 12 Substance Abuse and Syrian War Militias ....................................................... 14 Substance Abuse and Civilians ................................................................... 14 Applications to Public Health .................................................................... 15 Mini-Dictionary of Terms ........................................................................ 16 Key Facts of Drug Abuse in the Middle East: A Focus on Syria ............................... 16 H. Abazid (*) Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science [sp] Private University, Amman, Jordan e-mail: h_abazid@asu.edu.jo © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 V. B. Patel, V. R. Preedy(eds.), Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67928-6_140-1 1