Guttestreker

The first anti-drug legislation in the United States is an indirect result
of the opium wars of the mid-1800s. The British had gone to war with
China because they were in a trade deficit with the country and
needed a commodity to sell to the Chinese. Opium was chosen,
which they extracted from their colonies in India. The Chinese
emperor, on the other hand, did not want the population to become
addicted to the drug and forbade the British to sell it. Thus, the British
went to war and the British Navy crushed the Chinese army and was
thus able to set about making millions of Chinese dependent on the
plant extract.

In 1880, the American railroad was completed, which was largely
built by the Chinese. The diligent workers were seen as a threat to
American workers and a smear campaign was launched. It focused
on smoking opium in so-called opium dens. The campaign worked
and a beautiful day in May, two years later, the Chinese Exclusion
Act was signed by President Chester A. Arthur. It made it illegal for
Chinese, with few exceptions, to emigrate to the states. 27 years
later, after further propaganda, the first legislation against a narcotic
drug was signed in the United States. The law was called the
Smoking Opium Exclusion Act and made it illegal to import and
inhale the drug. Taking the drug as a pill or with a syringe was still
perfectly legal and widespread among the white population.