Assad's attendance at Arab League summit raises eyebrows.

Syria's return to the Arab League after a 12-year hiatus has been attributed to a variety of factors, including the country's role as the world's largest producer of Captagon, an addictive amphetamine-type stimulant pill. While President Bashar al-Assad denies any organised efforts by his government to profit from the drug, observers say he has turned Syria into a narco-state, making billions of dollars every year from a business that is believed to be worth several times that of the entirety of operations run by the infamous cartels in Mexico. Arab states have little leverage over Assad, who is unlikely to give up Captagon, but they hope that those regime elements involved in the Captagon trade might divert some of it to markets outside the Arab world to reduce the flow of the drug to Arab countries.