Memes

Failure to enforce drug prohibition resulted in Qing China having a nationwide addiction epidemic for British opium, resulting in the opium wars, the country's bankruptcy, partial European colonization as well as the so-called "century of humiliation". The effects of this addiction epidemic are still being felt nowadays, e.g. in widespread racism towards Asian people as well as the current opioid epidemic where Chinese-made fentanyl is exported worldwide with the unofficial sanction of the Chinese government.

This is the reason why drug prohibition is a thing, and why many Asian countries have death sentences even for simple possession of narcotics.