Despite major progress, tobacco remains the world's leading cause of preventable death and a major driver of heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes
Sources of cash are drying up as front companies and drug production lines are dismantled and supply networks and smuggling routes are compromised. Iran is also questioning its funding of the group.
The Kingdom is working with European partners in its war on drugs. But with such stellar profits to be made and such keen demand, it has been an uphill battle.
The drug trade is bankrolling the Damascus government through an illicit trade valued at around $57bn. Al Majalla explains why it started and how it's shaping Syrian society.
A prevalence of cheap drugs, a lack of awareness, and an inability to detect problems at an early stage are just some of the factors that have created a perfect storm
Synonymous with the country and closely associated with communal Yemeni life, Khat consumption has increased of late, with increasingly harmful effects on the environment, health, and families
Drug production and abuse have wreaked havoc in all corners of the world. In the Middle East, Captagon has emerged as a lucrative business, threatening the social fabric of many parts of the region.
The Middle East and Central Asia have been major opium production centres for millennia but the growing legitimate and illegitimate use of these powerful drugs is also causing big problems
There are concerns about Iranian attempts to influence the internal situation in Jordan, either by using its territory for military actions against Israel or by attacking American entities there.
A newly released US State Department strategy asserts that joint defence programmes in the region were key to success in curbing the Captagon drug trade
Palestinian death is increasingly being seen through the lens of cold political calculations. The world's silence over Gaza's horrors has drowned out the desperate screams of its people.
Although Tehran should understand by now that its hand is weak, it remains to be seen whether it can give up its fantasy of empire. Talks in Oman will be telling.
In Türkiye for talks and a conference, Syria's new president knows that there is much to do and many to satisfy if he is to rebuild his country. Amidst the smiles, those with agendas jostle.
With numbers so staggering and stories so harrowing, we can't say we don't know what's happening. More needs to be done to address what has become 'the world's largest displacement crisis'.