Chinese people enjoyed opium for centuries before the Opium wars. Opium was a legal and commonly traded item, and it was only since the 1790s that the imperial court started to worry about the effects of abuse.
And even ~1000 years before then, Wu Shi San was a popular, but toxic psychoactive drug used by the elite in China.
I can’t seriously believe that Chinese people didn’t abuse psychoactive substances before they discovered the joy of British opium
Also Imperial Britain was a monarchy, not a free country. Brunacho’s comment makes zero sense.
To be fair just before the time of the opium wars they were relatively far along in their process of converting to a democracy.
A country with an unelected House of Lords is still not a free democracy.
deleted by creator
they probably did, but there wasn’t an abuse epidemic before
Chinese people enjoyed opium for centuries before the Opium wars. Opium was a legal and commonly traded item, and it was only since the 1790s that the imperial court started to worry about the effects of abuse.
And even ~1000 years before then, Wu Shi San was a popular, but toxic psychoactive drug used by the elite in China.
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