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by aeblyve 483 days ago
Opium use in China was largely ended because of the Communist revolution there in the 20th century, and its policies on the matter.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/347925/
2 comments
getnormality 483 days ago
That was what I had heard too, but apparently it's gotten a bit complicated in recent decades [1][2].

Still, I get the impression that drugs are not a part of public life in China the way they are in America.

[1] http://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zggs/202406/t20240620_114...

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16669899

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bluGill 483 days ago
From my perspective drugs are not a part of public life in America either. I hope this continues (My kids will enter high school soon, and that is one of the places where they will leave my bubble for both good and bad)
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LAC-Tech 483 days ago
LOL at the extract:

The People's Republic of China dealt with addiction as a political problem, offering the new society hope, food, shelter, work, and land instead of opium. Addiction no longer had its appeal. Opium producing poppies were replaced by food corps. Large opium distributors were imprisoned. Addicts were "clean". A mass campaign against addiction mobilized the entire nation. Before Liberation in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party had kept opium out of their areas. However, it took until 1953 to rid China completely of opium. Twenty million Chinese outside the People's Republic of China continue to have serious narcotic addiction problems.

At least make it subtle.

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