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As an American, the irony of comeuppance isn't lost on me, given that we did have some involvement against them in the Opium Wars.
by lr4444lr 8y ago
As an American, the irony of comeuppance isn't lost on me, given that we did have some involvement against them in the Opium Wars.
- mc32 8y agoWe, Americans, or the British?
- Buldak 8y agoWe the West, I guess.
- mc32 8y agoEveryone in the “West” or just some? Are native Americans also included in this reckoning? What about Russians and Bulgarians?
- HillaryBriss 8y agoNative American communities have indeed been affected severely, but it's not clear how much is due to this particular type of Fentanyl: AP news reported recently that: "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures indicate the increase [in opioid overdose deaths from 1999 to 2015] was higher for Native Americans than any other group ..." https://www.apnews.com/81eb3ae96c2b4f6aae272ec50f0672d2 https://www.apnews.com/81eb3ae96c2b4f6aae272ec50f0672d2
- derefr 8y agoWe the Commonwealth, plus the American colonies that had recently departed the Commonwealth but still maintained their trade relations from when they were in it.
- mc32 8y agoI think it fair to say that while the British instigated it, it was mostly a metcantilist class who traded without the imprimatur of either government. In terms of who got rich, it was mercantilists from the US and the continent as well as local Turk and Indian producers.
- kgwgk 8y agoNo-one who is alive, anyway.
- megaman22 8y agoBoth, really. Americans were instrumental in pushing cheap, lower quality Turkish opium. Many of the great old East Coast fortunes were built on opium smuggling.
- wozniacki 8y agoMany of the great old East Coast fortunes were built on opium smuggling. Very interesting indeed. Could you please list a few or point to a link that does?
- megaman22 8y agoHere's one: http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2017/07/31/opium-boston-history http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2017/07/31/opium-boston-his... Most notably the Delanos, as in FDR, and the Forbes, as in John Forbes Kerry.
- 205guy 8y agoThat was enlightening. I didn't know the US merchants were so involved in the Chinese opium "trade." That is in quotes because China had banned the opium and these people were bribing Chinese officials and smuggling the drugs ashore. From the article: "they use boats manned by dozens of rowers to speed past inspectors, sneak up the coast, and deliver opium beyond the official port". They were essentially the drug cartels of the 1800's. The article goes on to say how this drug money extracted from China was used to kick start the US's industrial revolution, and still funds universities and hospitals with grants from these fortunes. But I'm not sure I see any difference between the actions of those Americans then and the drug lords now.
- EliRivers 8y agoJohn Jacob Astor was certainly involved. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/history.html https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/hi...
- perkee 8y agoThe Cabot family [1], one of the big Boston Brahmin families made their bones shipping slaves and opium. If the name is familiar, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was one of their most prominent sons. [1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cabot-family https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cabot-family [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cabot_Lodge_Jr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cabot_Lodge_Jr.
- deft 8y agoDon't forget the targeted attack on black communities through pushing crack cocaine and assisting smuggling efforts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_coca... https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-rich...
- StaticRedux 8y agoThe attack that never happened and/or has never been proven? From the line you yourself posted: "Webb's series led to three federal investigations, none of which found evidence of any conspiracy by the CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States."
- deft 8y agoYou're right, it may not have been proven but based on the amount of coverage and writing on it, there must be some truth behind it. Do you really think these people decided to make it up? And regardless of whether they smuggled the drugs, they knowingly supported the people doing it. Also, I haven't downvoted you and I'm quite confused by the votes on my original comment. Went straight into the negatives and now it's back up.
- reaperducer 8y ago>based on the amount of coverage and writing on it, there must be some truth behind it See also: U.F.O.'s, Kennedy Assassination, Illuminati, etc...
- uxp100 8y ago> You're right, it may not have been proven but based on the amount of coverage and writing on it, there must be some truth behind it. Seems like a bad way to determine the truth. But either way, even if the crack epidemic was simply a result of the material conditions in the communities it effected, the government is culpable, though perhaps in a somewhat more limited way
- reaperducer 8y agoI'm not sure why people think this is new. Far from it. Even back in the 1960's there was a scene in a James Bond film where some gangster was complaining that competition from Latin America was driving the prices down on his trade in Chinese drugs.
- 394852034 8y agoOf course a self-loathing, self-hating, suicidally compulsive liberal degenerate would say such a thing. What is wrong with you people. People are dying and families and lives are being destroyed and whole communities crushed and decimated and all you psychopaths can say is that you are gleeful that America and the west is having chemical warfare waged against it for some fantastical, propaganda delusional narrative you have been misled to believe happened hundreds of years ago? You are sick.
- nimrod0 8y agoWhat Americans never learned (or have forgotten) is that drugs affect a whole society, not just the individual.
- DanAndersen 8y agoThe Chinese have a long memory of the effect that widespread drug addiction has on a nation and a people. It wasn't until Mao that the issue was addressed, and they were actually quite effective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_opium_in_China#Under_Mao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_opium_in_China#Unde... >The Mao Zedong government is generally credited with eradicating both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using unrestrained repression and social reform.[9][10] Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops. I have my doubts that the West will be able to adequately deal with the issue. They don't seem to have the stomach for it.
- jnbiche 8y ago> They don't seem to have the stomach for it. Oh, and what would the West's "having the stomach" entail, exactly? Re-education camps? Execution for dealers?
- SamReidHughes 8y agoExecution for dealers plus the ability of police to test you for drugs without probable cause.
- beat 8y agoMay the West always lack the stomach to do what Mao did.