Exactly. It was the Brits, not the USA, who injected opium into China so they’d be easier to control. But to the chinee, we’re the new Brits, so we’ll be the proxy villain.
[Exactly. It was the Brits, not the USA, who injected opium into China so they’d be easier to control. But to the chinee, we’re the new Brits, so we’ll be the proxy villain.]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Narcotics_Tax_Act
The US was not only the biggest economy in the world by 1900, after centuries of cheap and easily available narcotics, it was arguably the most productive per capita. Today, narcotics are expensive and carry serious legal penalties, which means usage is neither common nor ubiquitous as it was before Drug Prohibition, when opium concentrate was used in cough syrup, and Coca Cola contained cocaine extract.
https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/W87wthIAACQizfa
https://web.uvic.ca/vv/student/chinatown/opium/p3.html
The Chinese had been using domestic opium for a thousand years before they decided to ban British opium, which was superior to the Chinese variant. Once the Chinese got access to the seeds necessary to grow the imported variant, they became self-sufficient, causing a crash in imported opium and started exporting it worldwide.