The alternative isn't to embrace it... We all understand the negative consequences from substance abuse. Their comment was about the method being used to deal with it, some methods are better than others

oh yeah for sure could be a reaction to the opium wars

• https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/hong-kong-and-the-opium-wars/ -

It's never the drugs that make a society erode; it's a symptom. If you have a big drug problem in a country, most likely it's related to much bigger issues at the core. Like in the Opium Wars, it was the British Empire that basically drugged China as a means to get what they want. It's not like they discovered drugs and then just stopped doing anything else; we humans had drugs and used drugs since we know about them.

Some argue this tactic is still very much in use today, hence the fentanyl crisis, which seems to be fueled by China. It's a destabilizing tactic. That's also part of why China and other Asian countries are so strict because they know firsthand the effectiveness of literally drugging your foe to gain an advantage. This does not mean China and co do not have their own drug market; they have a pretty vivid drug scene.

Also, as an example, Japan or China, yeah, sure, you can't buy weed; they will basically curb-stop you legally. But you can drink as much alcohol as you want, smoke as much tobacco as you want, and drink as many caffeine drinks as you want. These are all recreational drugs with a much higher impact on society than weed, yet they are totally legal and accepted by everyone or are even traditional.

Yes, I agree. In fact you can see this in the US today. Pharmaceutical oligarchs pushed their opium so hard, showing ads on TV, literally bribing doctors to sell it, small town pharmacies prescribing over 300 pills per resident per year.

Vast swathes of rural USA are zombie wastelands full of people just decaying because of conservative policy.

This is what winning looks like. Nobody wants to be the first one busting out the forks and spoons.

deteriorate some societies to the point it’s irrecoverable for centuries (see China and opium)

Large imports of opium to China only started in 1822, and while the 'century of humiliation' would begin ~20 years later, society was in no way 'irrecoverable', it wasn't centuries, and it wasn't because of opium.

Opium was yet another weight around the neck of Qing, but it was only a serious issue because the dominant naval power on the globe forced them to accept opium at cannon point and killed them when they refused.

Unless US aircraft carriers start bombing Korea into accepting industrial quantities of heroin, the situation isn't really comparable.

it's also related to how societies are fast tracked into productivity (Caffine is a drug)

The only drug specifically mentioned in the article is cannabis lol. As such, no not Portuguese, but I am from somewhere much more progressive than Portugal when it comes to cannabis regulations. Can a random tourist even go buy a joint legally from a store in Portugal yet? If any adult can't go buy it from a store legally without any further justification, then it isn't actually legal.