Drugs
Crisis Mode
Colombian president Gustavo Petro has been in the global spotlight for his war of words with Donald Trump over the deportation of migrants, but that incident has overshadowed a storm brewing at home — one that led Petro to declare a state of emergency that temporarily grants him extraordinary powers.
Assad’s Captagon Wager
The Assad regime’s manipulation of the Captagon trade, combining industrial-scale production with carefully crafted counternarcotics rhetoric, staged seizures and inflated statistics, gave the illusion of a crackdown. But the regime’s reliance on Captagon to reinforce its hold on power prompted a backlash from neighboring states and hastened its collapse.
In Sri Lanka, the Army Is Engaging in a New War on Drugs
Extrajudicial executions, police raids on low-income neighborhoods, media demonization of addicts and court-mandated rehabilitation at army-run centers have raised concerns about the criminalization of substance abuse in Sri Lanka.
The Politics of Turkey’s Coke Connection
Why has Turkey’s cocaine trade exploded, and what has led drug kingpins to take up residence in the country? There are several possible answers, and suspicions have been rising that corruption is playing a part.
Heartland America Struggles for Hope Amid the Opioid Epidemic
Along with many other small towns across America, Sedalia, Missouri, has been battling substance abuse on a vast scale, with opioid overdoses a leading cause of death. Yet as the country gears up for the 2024 presidential election, the crisis seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Liberia Has a Drug Problem. One ‘General’ Is Trying To Fix It With Brutality
Liberia is struggling to contain its population’s addiction to a cheap synthetic form of marijuana called kush. One powerful former military leader has taken a brutal approach at a rehab facility the state claims to know nothing about.