Use of psychoactive substances by repressive forces
The nationwide protests that we have been witnessing for about 3 months, as well as the massive massacre that took place in Kurdish cities and other cities in Iran in the past month, indicate the use of psychoactive substances by repressive forces.
Recently, videos have gone viral on social media, showing the use of drugs by the repressive forces. A citizen from Mashhad says: “The repressive forces are taking drugs and dying in each other’s faces.”
The massive massacre that has occurred all over Iran, and with such cruelty (shooting people with live ammunition, infanticide, killing ordinary people and not protesters, attacking houses with live ammunition, destroying people's property, etc.) shows that the oppressors are not normal. No matter how cruel they are, an ordinary person cannot be so heartless as to pick up a weapon of war and shoot people without considering whether the person they are killing is a child or not. A normal and sane person, even if he is a coward, still thinks about the consequences of his action before doing anything. Some social media users in different cities, especially Tehran, had pointed out the "abnormality of some of the oppressors."
According to the Iranian Courier, following the invasion of a hospital in Gorgan by special forces in plain clothes, Dr. Hashem Mousavi, the director of the hospital who was himself injured in the attack, said: "Some of the forces really seemed to be in a special mental state. They were so aggressive and had free rein that if they saw someone, they would bring down their batons on their heads, so much so that even the commanders themselves had difficulty controlling them."
Reports from people in different cities also tell a similar story. People from Mashhad and Tehran have stated that they have seen with their own eyes that people were using drugs and dying in front of each other during the repression; but unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to take photos or videos. Eyewitnesses say that seeing these scenes reminds us of World War I, when one of the countries that gave its soldiers psychotropic drugs to hallucinate and gain great strength so that they could fight to the death was Japan. According to people, the oppressors definitely used hallucinogenic drugs that could make them lose their minds and kill people without any remorse.
Dariush Mand explains in a tweet about the psychoactive drug called “Captagon.” It is said that the Captagon produced in Syria, which has been consumed in large quantities by ISIS fighters in the last decade, is very different from the 1980s version, and instead of the two main ingredients, “methamphetamine” and “caffeine,” both of which are highly addictive stimulants, have been used. Like any other heavy addictive substance, the new-age Captagon can lead to irreversible changes in the part of the brain that governs “impulse control” and “judgment power,” and deprives a person of the ability to “reason” or “think logically.” Captagon is also known in the Western media as the “Syrian war drug” or the “Mujahideen drug.”
This psychotropic drug was widely produced in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria. Since the coordinated use of this drug has been observed not only among ISIS fighters but also among Syrian army soldiers and proxy units affiliated with the Islamic Republic, it is speculated that the IRGC has begun producing this substance (and similar psychotropic drugs) within Iran in recent years, and has used the practical experience of the Syrian war to use this substance among its own forces.
Regarding the repression by security forces during nationwide protests in Iran, the grouping of the suppression forces is done in such a way that a limited number of people in each group use it and the rest are ordinary people; because each group needs a few wise people with the ability to make decisions, and in return, a few people are needed to play the role of creating terror and even, if necessary, the role of murderers.
