Lots of telephone game seems to be going on. This is a long post but we need to stop turning guesswork into lore. Remember Occam's Razor.
There is NO evidence Salah sold drugs. If he was a drug dealer, Chantal would have made some error and let it slip as she did instantly with Nads. She’d have used his product and been high on stream in Kuwait. I think Salah did exactly what everybody including Murad and Alaa said: worked at a cell phone store before he started catfishing, and then quit when Chantal bit and started a perfume business when Chantal gave him money. He and Murad used a Kuwaiti man for the business, as all non-citizens must, and the outrage caused by Chantal’s foul mouth, constant online presence, and inability to adjust to the country put them in harms way, and the Kuwaiti noticed. The silly kitten story finally turned the spotlight on them-it got too hot and he fled.
Chantal is not currently high. She has uncontrolled diabetes, and blood sugar fluctuations can interfere with sleep, awareness and speech. Plus she is in a war zone with fighting nearby, no electricity, good water, cannot get her comfort food and is very stressed, and she is not getting much sleep without her cPap. She’s going to sound drugged.
Chin’s has paid for men, she has said all she needs to do is get in their house, she has made financial arrangements, but that doesn’t mean she thinks these men don’t love her. Chantal is delusional, she thinks she’s pretty and sexy and does believe they fall for her. She never doubted Nadar’s love, even when he flat out told her he didn't, or when he had a new girlfriend he moved in with. She’s got the crazy stalker”we locked eyes are so are in love” mindset. The only think that pulls her from that state is another man. She believes Salah loves her. She believes they are a family.
All of her neediness and decisions about men and her forgiveness of behavior most of us would find intolerable is because Chantal is absolutely terrified of abandonment.
Her father leaving her left her with a deep, unfixable wound. She has tried random sex with homeless men, stalked teenagers, she falls in love at first site, she eats inhumanly, she smokes or eats weed in huge quantities, and needs her beezers, all to fill that daddy shaped hole and reassure her she’s not abandoned. Any man who looks at her-even the guy who gave her an extra ketchup packet- makes her feel worthy. Without a man, she goes into a dark hole where she feels wretched and worthless. So she creates situations where they won’t leave her, which was easier when she had more money but still seems to have been working, although it is finally starting to fall apart.
Salah isn’t drugged. He’s furious. He didn’t like Kuwait. He is not religious. He wanted to be a cool westerner and live in Canada. But his life, hard as it was in Kuwait being a third class citizen, at least was comfortable enough. He had a job, the red room, a shitty apartment and a car before Chantal.
After she came he moved to a “ocean view” villa, got a brand new car and money to put into a business. He got a trip to Thailand, and the promise of Canada. All that is gone and more because of Chantal. His okay life has turned into a Syrian nightmare. He begged her not to come but she did. He’s mad.
Remember back in the early days when we were interested in Chantal’s tics? They are still there, not as prominent and we are so used to them they just seem normal now. Well, Salah deliberately does that laugh. There is no humor in it, there is clearly anger. He’s annoying her, making fun of her.. but also setting off a tic. Have you noticed? When he “laughs” she does too. She tries to hold it back because she’s annoyed but watch, she ends up laughing every time. He’s being passive aggressive with no consequences-he’s not drugged.
Why doesn’t he leave her? This is the mystery. I do think they got married in Thailand and don’t know divorce law there. But of course, they may not be and you can leave somebody even when married , so who knows why he stays he? Sunk cost fallacy? Still hope for Canada? Family obligation? The small world we we a a a aaaaapayout is better than none at all?
There are a lot of pieces of this puzzle we don’t know but it’s hardwired into humans to fill in the gaps. And they do that based their own interpretations and experience. So we have guesses about why he stays- from outlandish to likely. But we don’t know. For all we know that disliking her aside, he feels some obligation for her. Crazy but his mother died when he was a teen-we don’t know him and maybe that affected him someway that he doesn’t know. It seems he’s talked her into going home to Canada a few times and didn’t want her in Syria. He was probably hoping she’d stay in Canada and he’d be able to latch onto Kaibella or another western woman.
Whatever the truth is, we need to remeber we aren’t Reddit. Speculate away but make sure you know your lore and it’s based more than truth. We don’t know every detail and we’ve been pretty good at not making up wild theories until lately.