Hello, I'm Natasha Froes and this is Spectator Out Loud, where each week we hear a few of the writers read their pieces from the magazine.

Coming up this week, Paul Wood on Sirius Drug Lords, Mary Wakefield on the dangers of psychedelic drug therapy, and Melissa Kite on her builder boyfriends' A.A. Exclusion.

First up, Paul Wood.

Abu Hassan puts down his Kalashnikov and reaches into a pocket on his body warmer to hand me a small white pill.

Here, he says in Arabic, a gift. This will keep you awake for 48 hours. He grins and adds in English, good sex. The pill is captagon, an amphetamine known as the poor man's coke. It can make the

user feel invincible and was taken by fighters on all sides in Syria's civil war. ISIS were said

to be big fans of Captain Courage, as it's also known. It has now spread across the Middle East.

You might find Captagon fuelling a party in Riyadh, or keeping a

Baghdad taxi driver awake through a double shift. It is, of course, illegal and horribly addictive.

It's said to be by far Syria's biggest export, providing more than 90% of the country's foreign currency. The Assad regime

may be the world's biggest narco state. Abou Hassan was introduced to me as the boss of a Lebanese

captican gang. We met through a relative of his. The only reason Abba Hassan is talking to me.

He's not the biggest captican producer in Lebanon, he says, but not the smallest either. He isn't what you'd imagine a

Lebanese drug lord might look like. No bling, no flash car. He's small and scruffy in his 50s,

with grey stubble and a weathered chestnut-coloured face.

He drives an ancient Mercedes.

More in keeping with expectations, there are four or five bodyguards.

One, where in combat webbing stuffed with ammunition and grenades, sits with us while we talk.

The mountains that are the border with Syria loom in the

distance. Abu Hassan explains how the Assad regime makes money from him. It starts with a call from a

middleman in Syria, placing an order for a dealer in Iraq, Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Then they hurry to get the

ingredients, what he calls Chinese salts and benzene. These are legal chemicals shipped through the port

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