In the Middle East, the curse of addiction

The Middle East plays a key role in global drug production. A reality with multiple implications, described by historian Jean-Pierre Filiu in his latest book, Stupéfiant Moyen-Orient. Brief review.

Drug production in the Middle East is a topic that is all too often overlooked. At most, we know that Afghanistan, throughout its turbulent history, has specialized in the cultivation of poppies—the plant from which opium is extracted—which supplies the world with heroin, among other things.

In *Stupéfiant Moyen-Orient*, Jean-Pierre Filiu sets out to unpack this vast subject. And as if the region’s vastness and diversity weren’t complex enough, the historian expands his inquiry from antiquity to the present day, offering a comprehensive spatio-temporal framework: no territory and no era are overlooked.