Captagon is a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant that was first manufactured in 1961 as an alternative to amphetamine and methamphetamine used at the time to treat narcolepsy, fatigue, and the behavioral disorder "minimal brain dysfunction". It was mainly prescribed as a treatment for attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy, and as a central nervous system stimulant. Captagon tablets contained fenethylline, a synthetic drug of the phenethylamine family to which amphetamine also belongs. By the 1980s, the U.S. government declared it a controlled substance with no currently accepted medical use, and manufacturing of the drug ceased in the 1980s. However, illegal manufacture has continued, and has recently escalated in the past few years in Europe and the Middle East. Some sources suggest Captagon is one of the more popular recreational drugs among affluent youth in the Middle East.

Captagon is no longer manufactured, and counterfeit Captagon tablets are mostly combined with amphetamine, caffeine, ephedrine, quinine, theophylline, and other drugs. Many of these counterfeit "Captagon" tablets contain other amphetamine derivatives that are easier to produce, but are pressed and stamped to look like Captagon pills. These illicit pills often contain "a mix of amphetamines, caffeine. Today, Captagon is mostly manufactured in Syria and Lebanon, where hundreds of millions of pills are produced. The drugs versatility has made it popular with everyone from students staying awake all night before exams to taxi drivers working two jobs, to high-powered professionals hoping to stay focused over long hours. In its main market, Saudi Arabia, the rich use it to party all night, while many women take it to lose weight. Captagon is less taboo than cocaine or even alcohol in Gulf countries.