Two hundred years ago, China crushed its opium epidemic with bold action. Today, the United States buries 100,000 overdose victims every year. What changed?
You did a good job presenting the history before the reform changes were made. I like everything you said except believe that in addition to everything you said we need to grant exemptions to tribal peoples traditional use of plants that went back thousands of years. Their tradition ceremonies are pretty structured not anything about pleasure seeking. Other than that your proposals were would fix many problems right now that are hurting many people.
US needs a cultural Renaissance of basic human decency.
I don’t believe governments truly want to stop drug addiction. The ecosystem is too profitable—not just from drugs, but from all it enables: human trafficking, arms trades, legal systems, and privatized healthcare. In the U.S. alone, over **106,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2021** (CDC data)—yet treatment remains underfunded while corporations profit.
This reveals a deeper cultural divide. China’s continuous civilization stretches back **3,700 years** (verified from Xia Dynasty to modern China), while the U.S. traces just **248 years** since 1776. China evolved organically; America was built by colonization and immigration.
China strategizes for centuries, quietly turning historical humiliation into strength. America forgets its roots—both the exploited labor that built it and the communal values needed to sustain it. One culture plans generations ahead; the other can’t see past quarterly profits.
Systems aren’t broken—they’re operating exactly as designed.
An interesting article and these are certainly steps to take in order to reduce harm, but I would argue that the root cause for today’s drug use is the increasingly dystopian society which people are having to deal with, particularly in the west. When society is completely dysfunctional and offers only stress, anxiety and pain, people resort to drugs as escape. Alcohol is the main one of course, followed by cannabis. Alcohol does more damage than any other drug: if we look at the figures for health issues, productivity, crime and deaths, these are likely much higher than all other drugs combined. Cannabis was relatively harmless until the THC content rocketed and became a threat to mental health. So-called hard drugs are addictive physically, but also emotionally in a dysfunctional society.
Short term, controlled use of psychotropic substances can be enlightening, but it certainly isn’t something people should be taking all the time and they can also be detrimental to mental health at any level, so access would be controlled and use supervise in an ideal society.
In short, drug use cannot be meaningfully tackled without also tackling the societal problems that often cause their proliferation. Education is paramount to enable people to understand risks, but the whole of US society is a deeply corrupt, chaotic mess with no accountability or plans for improvement. The CIA have been heavily involved in drug trafficking operations, of course. It’s often impossible to determine whether the ill effects of US state actions are due to incompetence or evil intent. Probably a mixture of both.
Thanks for your articles and videos. They are always thought provoking and often illuminating.
All good strategy to deal with trafficking except what did China leaders do with the addicted? Were they just disposed of as well? When your addicted you’re not a criminal you’re a victim!🇨🇦
Is there any record of how that was handled the process or the scope of that undertaking. That must have been a massive program and problem for many families and workers young and old
thank you for your insight, to me, drug addiction is a social and cultural issue. China also struggled with drugs in the past, but after years of cultural education and public awareness, things improved. Of course, strong legal enforcement also played a key role.
Fighting addiction takes cooperation from every part of society, from the top down. I’ve lived in Canada for many years, and it breaks my heart to see so many people overdose. Honestly, many of them could have been saved, but they ended up dying on the streets. It's a tragedy that shouldn't be normal.
You want to speak of scapegoats, go look up the Sassoon family where the British opium wars are concerned. Then look up the sackler family where the American opioid crisis is concerned. The scapegoat here is white people, the culprit is a sub group of them who are semetic and trade in vices; jews.
Even the Chinese has a serious problem with them back in the day, kaifeng jews were a nuisance trading in the same vices back then which are sold today.
You did a good job presenting the history before the reform changes were made. I like everything you said except believe that in addition to everything you said we need to grant exemptions to tribal peoples traditional use of plants that went back thousands of years. Their tradition ceremonies are pretty structured not anything about pleasure seeking. Other than that your proposals were would fix many problems right now that are hurting many people.
US needs a cultural Renaissance of basic human decency.
I don’t believe governments truly want to stop drug addiction. The ecosystem is too profitable—not just from drugs, but from all it enables: human trafficking, arms trades, legal systems, and privatized healthcare. In the U.S. alone, over **106,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2021** (CDC data)—yet treatment remains underfunded while corporations profit.
This reveals a deeper cultural divide. China’s continuous civilization stretches back **3,700 years** (verified from Xia Dynasty to modern China), while the U.S. traces just **248 years** since 1776. China evolved organically; America was built by colonization and immigration.
China strategizes for centuries, quietly turning historical humiliation into strength. America forgets its roots—both the exploited labor that built it and the communal values needed to sustain it. One culture plans generations ahead; the other can’t see past quarterly profits.
Systems aren’t broken—they’re operating exactly as designed.
An interesting article and these are certainly steps to take in order to reduce harm, but I would argue that the root cause for today’s drug use is the increasingly dystopian society which people are having to deal with, particularly in the west. When society is completely dysfunctional and offers only stress, anxiety and pain, people resort to drugs as escape. Alcohol is the main one of course, followed by cannabis. Alcohol does more damage than any other drug: if we look at the figures for health issues, productivity, crime and deaths, these are likely much higher than all other drugs combined. Cannabis was relatively harmless until the THC content rocketed and became a threat to mental health. So-called hard drugs are addictive physically, but also emotionally in a dysfunctional society.
Short term, controlled use of psychotropic substances can be enlightening, but it certainly isn’t something people should be taking all the time and they can also be detrimental to mental health at any level, so access would be controlled and use supervise in an ideal society.
In short, drug use cannot be meaningfully tackled without also tackling the societal problems that often cause their proliferation. Education is paramount to enable people to understand risks, but the whole of US society is a deeply corrupt, chaotic mess with no accountability or plans for improvement. The CIA have been heavily involved in drug trafficking operations, of course. It’s often impossible to determine whether the ill effects of US state actions are due to incompetence or evil intent. Probably a mixture of both.
Thanks for your articles and videos. They are always thought provoking and often illuminating.
It's obvious Trump is an old junkie.
All good strategy to deal with trafficking except what did China leaders do with the addicted? Were they just disposed of as well? When your addicted you’re not a criminal you’re a victim!🇨🇦
Mandatory rehab and detox, that what we did to one of our friends.
Is there any record of how that was handled the process or the scope of that undertaking. That must have been a massive program and problem for many families and workers young and old
thank you for your insight, to me, drug addiction is a social and cultural issue. China also struggled with drugs in the past, but after years of cultural education and public awareness, things improved. Of course, strong legal enforcement also played a key role.
Fighting addiction takes cooperation from every part of society, from the top down. I’ve lived in Canada for many years, and it breaks my heart to see so many people overdose. Honestly, many of them could have been saved, but they ended up dying on the streets. It's a tragedy that shouldn't be normal.
You want to speak of scapegoats, go look up the Sassoon family where the British opium wars are concerned. Then look up the sackler family where the American opioid crisis is concerned. The scapegoat here is white people, the culprit is a sub group of them who are semetic and trade in vices; jews.
Even the Chinese has a serious problem with them back in the day, kaifeng jews were a nuisance trading in the same vices back then which are sold today.
Very interesting read, thank you John!!