I'm quite informed about China's resort to Tyranny, as well as the United States' emulation thereof.
There are plenty of authoritarian regimes to be found that are willing to trample Liberty for a little temporary safety, all in the name of Order. The United States shouldn't be one of them. Such rationalizations will never make it right...
We did the exact opposite thing that China did. We banned drugs. They collapsed. We survived.
Their dictator was a consequence of their collapse. Their collapse was a consequence of legal drugs.