The Opium War was the first influential war concerning drugs. It is the model for man’s struggle with the desire for profit at the cost of another man’s clarity.
The Opium War refers to the first of two wars in which opium played a factor. However, the importance of opium in the second is debatable. Significant outcomes of the first war were the ceding of Hong Kong to England and the opening up of trade ports to Britain in the Treaty of Nanking.
The main reason for England’s declaration of war on China was that China had intended to cut off all drug trade with the other country. Although the opium trade was still going strong, China had in fact kept regulations that illegalized opium. With China’s aversion to further unauthorized drug trade and, by the actions of Lin Xexu, a special commissioner who forcefully attempted to interpose English trade by detaining them in factories, England attacked, outraged; with the western country’s superior navy and previous modernization, China was no match for her.
The fundamental issue, and an example of how men’s morals can be horribly skewed, is how English traders thought nothing of bringing a drug to an underdeveloped country in the east; it was too far off and too inconsequential to be of any concern to them. Even if they were possibly aware of what the opium trade caused, they ignored all of that and brought despair to China, all in the name of profit and wealth.
The scale of the matter was immense. By the 1800s, 1/3 of China’s population was hooked on opium. China’s population was already huge in those times: around 300,000,000 people, and some 100,000,000 of them were opium addicts. All levels of society frequented opium dens, and due to how embraced it was by the Chinese, opium became a method of socialisation among the people. Workmen would shirk duties to go and smoke opium, and due to Columbus’ discovery of tobacco in the New World, the experience was intensified and made far more addictive.
Taking opium can lead to deterioration of mental health, loss of weight, organ damage and anxiety issues. As with most drugs, an overdose can lead to death. Opium addicts are leading themselves to a painful, slow death, and China saw this destruction and wished to stop it, seeing the resulting effect on the economy, work output and the nation itself. England’s intolerance and monetary gain caused the war, when all China wanted to do was decrease the harmful effects opium had on its population.
A lasting legacy and perhaps the greatest significance of this war is how closely it can be used as an example of drug wars still occurring today. Mexico still struggles to contain drug smugglers, and the drug industry is estimated to be worth over $5,000,000,000. Not only that, but the estimate itself is inaccurate due to improper control over drug business. Many deals are left unrecorded and unknown, and a single packet of opium may be simply untraceable.
All this simply for profit. Drug traffickers have no care for what they cannot see, and this is where greed eclipses justice. The drug trade has left many in misery, unable to lead the lives they once led due to uncontrollable need; this is why drug use must be controlled or stopped altogether, to topple the industry and pave the way for a future without addiction.
Criminalize War Club 