http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Opium_War
The new world order of today are in essence heirs to the same elite factions that precipitated those wars and love to enslave people with drugs, taxes, slavery and debt.
About the same time British aristocrats were puffing themselves up as global humanitarians for finally having their puppets in Parliament pass a law to make their own slave trade “illegal” (just before it would be obsolete anyway), they were ramping up their heinous efforts to turn China into a nation of opium addicts so they could ease British global traders’ silver imbalance. Wicked and diabolical to the extreme, but, they speak with British accents, so they have to be nice people, right ?
Sheeple need to understand that drugs are bad for sheeple.
But some sheeple actually argue on behalf of their slave-trading, drug-trading masters, for drug legalization.
The Qinq dynasty saw the horrific consequences on their nation of legalized opium, decided to push back and fight the British banking/slave trading/drug trading/socialist/communist/banking elites...
and got whipped by them.
Ever since, the elites have ruled China as a slave state.
These elites are the ones that run the US and UK and Europe like Boss Hogg ran Hazzard County.
It’s a huge scam/conspiracy, but many of the local sheeple are so dimwitted they can’t see it or won’t admit it.
Opium was legal all over the world, including in China which had been using opium for 1000 years, since the Tang dynasty. Chinese officials were concerned because British opium was more potent than the domestic variety, which meant that it was preferred by Chinese users. The problem was that this reversed the balance of trade, which had previously favored the Chinese heavily, since they exported tea, porcelain and silk and imported very little except silver. It took some time, but it was only a very short period after the Second Anglo-Chinese War (what the Chinese call the 2nd Opium War) that the Chinese figured out how to cultivate the opium varieties imported via British merchants and ended the imports. Throughout all this, Chinese emigres living outside of China prospered, despite having ready access to opium. In the US, the emigre Chinese did so well that Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 to keep new immigrants from China out. It wasn't until 1914 that the US criminalized opium.
The real damage done to China wasn't from opium - it was from the Russian conquest of traditionally Chinese territory in Outer Manchuria. If the Qing dynasty's rulers hadn't organized the mass migration of Chinese into Inner Manchuria, that part of China would probably be Russian today. Just how big was Outer Manchuria, the territory taken by Russia at Chinese expense? Almost as big as Texas.
Baa,aaaaa,aaaaa - - - humbuig!
As you chose an argument set west of the California Coast, so shall I.
Hawaii, before WW !! was a good example of the benefits of no government policy being the best policy. Pre-WW II Hawaii was where a colleague grew up, and he did go to Iolani.
He said that any and all drugs were available, but that they were “mainly used by the Chinese”. They preferred opium. Student drug use, according to him, was described as follows: “I never saw any.”, and said with comments to the effect that drug usage was generally unknown, period.
Your use of Perfidious Albion's “Opium War” is supportive of my point. Do remember that I have suggested removing the restrictions and accepting the addict deaths which will ensue.
If a citizen wishes to commit suicide, the Constitution does not mandate government attempt to stop said suicide. We are, after all, citizens, not property/subjects of a King.
Better the evils of drugs than the combined evils of
1. Drugs.
and
2. Militarized “Drug Warriors”.
and
3. Law Enforcement with ‘Civil Forfeiture” powers.
and
4. Courts corrupted by the immense amount of “Drug War” money.
and
5. Loss/severe infringement of many Constitution guaranteed rights.
If it comes to allowing the Constitution to die or a bunch of druggies to die, I would choose to protect/preserve the Constitution, not the druggies and their supply chain.