Northern Syria -
In a crime that shook the areas controlled by the Syrian opposition and stunned the people, the thirty-year-old Syrian "Saad.kh" killed his brother, wife and five children, and wounded others.
Private sources from the countryside of Aleppo say that the killer broke into his brother's house in the town of Al-Waqf in the countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria, and shot most of the family members, before he killed his niece, stabbed her with a knife, and fled the area, raising ambiguity about the motive behind the crime that occurred less than two months ago. .
However, the shock did not last long after the killer was arrested, as the local security authorities revealed that he was a drug addict, and that his brother, a leader in the Syrian opposition factions, had arrested him more than once and imprisoned him because of addiction, in order to get out of his prison and take revenge in his own way.
According to the sources, the killer confessed to using the drug "H-Bose", which is recently popular in northwestern Syria, among many narcotic substances that kill a large percentage of the country's youth, who are exhausted by war and the collapse of the economy, while the majority of citizens there struggle for their daily sustenance.
Quantities of narcotic drugs confiscated in the countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria (Al-Jazeera)
The fashion of the era
Documented statistics on drug use in northern Syria raise concern for those concerned with local and security affairs, as the Syrian Center for Drug Control revealed an increase in drug use among young people between the ages of 16 and 30 in northwestern Syria, which is under opposition control.
The center confirmed that the rate of abuse in the northern countryside of Aleppo is higher than in other areas, in addition to the camps for the displaced Syrians in the region, warning of an escalation in the number of drug users there due to the lack of awareness, care and education.
The center's founder, Hassan Junaid, points out that "HBose" or "crystal meth" is one of the most dangerous and widespread narcotic substances in northwestern Syria, explaining that users of this substance fall into addiction from the first time by 90%, because it directly targets the brain, and causes in a state of schizophrenia.
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Junaid confirmed that drugs have spread frighteningly in northern Syria, most notably "codeine, tramadol and Captagon" pills, as well as hashish, as it is widely available and cheap.
The spokesman explains that some school and university students have resorted to drugs in line with the so-called "fashion of the age", or to escape the difficult psychological conditions that have caused them severe depression, noting that most of the drug users are teenagers looking for happiness that they are deluded by bad companions.
Where do the drugs come from?
Despite talking about rare drug-manufacturing facilities in northwestern Syria, the size of which is unknown, the head of the drug control department in the countryside of Aleppo, Ahmed Othman, confirmed that most of the quantities of narcotic substances come from the areas controlled by the Syrian regime, based on the report issued by the International Narcotics Control Commission, which revealed that Most of the narcotic substances - the most important of which is hashish - reach Syria from Lebanon.
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Othman said that "H-Bose" and "Captagon" pills arrive from Iran to the areas controlled by the Syrian regime, as raw materials that are manufactured in its laboratories, before smugglers transport them to northern Syria.
The security official in charge of drug control explained that promoters and dealers are dealt with strictly legally, while drug users are detained for a period to ensure that they get rid of the effects of drug abuse due to the lack of special addiction treatment centers.
Regarding the number of security cases and people arrested in the Aleppo countryside during the past year, Othman indicated that 774 officers were registered, including the arrest of 1,195 people on charges of promoting, trading and drug abuse of all kinds.
Rehabilitation
On the preventive and therapeutic side, health and community activities are working in northwestern Syria with the aim of educating families and providing medical and psychological treatments for survivors of addiction.
The Secretary of the Aleppo Doctors Syndicate, Dr. Omar Farouh, explains the mechanism of treating drug addicts, which is carried out according to accurate scientific medical protocols and the standards of the World Health Organization, through the evaluation of the addict by doctors specializing in addiction, who prepare for him the necessary treatment plan for his condition.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Farouh adds that the treatment is applied in a center or at the patient's home, to be followed by a stage of psychological and social support through specialized psychological counselors, up to the stage of his full recovery.
As for the Syrian Center for Combating Drugs, according to its founder, Hassan Junaid, it carries out digital awareness programs that target Syrian youth by publishing awareness leaflets and booklets about the dangers of drugs and their effects on both the family and society.
Junaid said that since the new year 2023, the center has launched a series of awareness programs with specialists and doctors, including camps, schools and universities, as well as the rehabilitation of drug users and their reception and their families within the empowerment, training and rehabilitation programs offered by the center.