A Disgraceful Little War ~ The Opium War and Commissioner Lin

Gloria Romanorum ^ | 6/26/17 | Florentius

[Antoninus]

For those in favor of legalizing drugs, it's important to know history. Those who do not know history...something...something...

Statue of Commissioner Lin in NYC.

[kaehurowing]

Bring back the death penalty for drug dealers.

[mosesdapoet]

Boxer rebellion and the Delano’s

[kaehurowing]

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/2074914/china-executes-colombian-drug-mule-despite-pleas-mercy

[DiogenesLamp]

Occasionally I get into arguments with people who think drugs should be legalized. I have long pointed to the consequences of losing the Drug War in China, but invariably I get back a response that "America is not China", implying that somehow culture will protect us from a physiological addiction.

Humans are humans, and what destroyed China can also destroy anyone else foolish enough to attempt it.

[Antoninus]

Humans are humans, and what destroyed China can also destroy anyone else foolish enough to attempt it.

Bingo.

[laplata]

Boxer rebellion and the Delano’s

---

You beat me to it.

FDR’s ancestors made huge amounts of money in the opium trade.

[kaehurowing]

We have hundreds of brain-damaged people wandering around outside my downtown office building right now. Brain damaged from drugs and euphemistically called “the homeless.” The police are constantly dealing with them, and they are often violent and deranged. Huges spikes in crime.

[DiogenesLamp]

We have hundreds of brain-damaged people wandering around outside my downtown office building right now. Brain damaged from drugs and euphemistically called “the homeless.” The police are constantly dealing with them, and they are often violent and deranged. Huges spikes in crime.

And that is with the existing levels of interdiction. A lot of people think we are fighting a "War on Drugs", but that's just because they keep calling it that. What we are doing is fighting a holding action. We don't fight an actual war against drugs because the American people would get upset if we started actually killing drug manufactures and drug dealers.

People simply do not understand what sort of social disaster we would face if we legalized drugs in the manner China was forced to do.

[ichabod1]

Weed is not opium.

[DiogenesLamp]

FDR’s ancestors made huge amounts of money in the opium trade.

I didn't know about this. How did they make money in the opium trade? I thought it was mostly a British affair.

[DiogenesLamp]

Weed is not opium.

Weed is the camel's nose in the tent.

[Antoninus]

We have hundreds of brain-damaged people wandering around outside my downtown office building right now. Brain damaged from drugs and euphemistically called “the homeless.” The police are constantly dealing with them, and they are often violent and deranged. Huges spikes in crime.

Theft in our neighborhood is about 90% about drug addicts looking for funds.

[Antoninus]

What we are doing is fighting a holding action.

That is correct.

[ichabod1]

Many of them are simply nuts and in a saner society would be institutionalized.

[Leaning Right]

> Unfortunately, at the heart of the issue were the merchants of a major foreign power — Great Britain. In order to balance out their trade deficit with China, the British began exporting opium into Chinese ports in large quantities. <

A friend of mine, a history buff, once said that the English upper class was the most evil group in all of history. I’d argue argue against the “most” designation. Consider Hitler’s Nazis and Stalin’s commissars, for example.

Nevertheless, my friend did have a point.

[webstersII]

So you are advocating that the compassionate thing to do for drug users is just to kill them like they did in China?

Yeah, just kill them all, don’t bother with rehab, that will solve the problem. /sarcasm

I have family members saved from addiction and I don’t agree with your solution.

[Lurker]

I know the history.

And there is still not a single shred of Constitutional authority for the Feds to tell adults what they can or can not put into their own bodies. None.

L

[Antoninus]

So you are advocating that the compassionate thing to do for drug users is just to kill them like they did in China?

This article is more about the evils of the drug trade than punishment of addicts. I'm Catholic, so of course I don't favor the death penalty for victims of addiction. The pushers, on the other hand, deserve just what the British should have gotten.

[laplata]

As I remember, they made money through shipping it out of China. The father and grandfather of Sarah Delano Roosevelt, FDR’s mother, made the money.