Opium Wars

In 1820 China had the largest economy in the world. By 1787 the British East India Company was selling them 680,000 pounds of Opium a year. They weren’t the only providers, just one of the bigger ones. Among the English they had a Crown Monopoly on the Trade.

By 1833 they were providing 5.1 Million pounds and after years of attempting to buy them off, in 1839 the Chinese seized a bunch of it. Britain, not satisfied with the value of the settlement for the property, engaged in an aggressive military campaign against China called The First Opium War.

China was resoundingly defeated and in the diktat of Nanking surrendered control of Hong Kong in perpetuity, and opened the ports of Shanghai, Canton, Ningpo, Foochow, and Amoy, gave most favored nation status to the English and added provisions for British extraterritoriality (meaning British citizens were not subject to Chinese law). There was a Second Opium War in 1856 but it was more about Territorial expansion and trading in Chinese Slaves than Opium.

All of which are very bad things to do.

Three Songs about Heroin, an Opioid

I’ve had Opioids, Codeine for a variety of ills (toothache), Morphine for Hospital level pain (I call that a 6, 10 is passed out and 9 is I want to die), Fentanyl as an anesthetic (I don’t remember missing a full day per se but there were events other people attest to that I can’t recall), and Oxycontin, a lot of it over a fair amount of time (3 – 4 weeks maybe) after I broke my leg in half a dozen places.

Never finished it. At the end it was just making me paranoid and itch all over so I stopped. Didn’t affect my overall pain level which normally runs at about a 2. Yeah, pretty much every day, you get used to it.

Withdrawal? Didn’t notice it (I already felt pretty crappy) so my experience is mine and probably not typical.

I pity the fool who doesn’t like Curling

Winter is here.

Self Regulation does not work.

Did John Oliver talk about other things? Yes, and I hope to post his remarks but sourcing other than the main topic is difficult.