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There Is No Drug Addiction In China

By VVAW

Drug addiction is at plague proportions in the United States. Thousands of people die every year from over doses. The number of addicts on hard drugs is in the millions. For veterans in particular, the Indochina war made more addicts than deaths in combat or deaths by accident. Sources estimate the Vietnam veterans drug addiction total to be somewhere close to 200,000.

Hardly anyone likes to be an addict. At one time or another, almost all dopers and junkies seek help to get the monster off the back. But it's one thing to want to be cleaned up, and another to get help to do it. There are hundreds of agencies in the US supposedly helping people with drug problems. From the VA to community self-help programs, millions of dollars are spent. But are those millions meant to help, or are the programs just placebos?

A quick look at how the VA handles drug problems is enough to convince any vet that they're in for real trouble. The VA has a solution, but it's a solution of control--which is no solution at all. It's called methadone maintenance, or in plain language--another form of drug addiction. Methadone is more addictive than heroin and is harder to get off of than any of the opiates (heroin, morphine.) The whole idea of VA program is to control drug usage, not to help the addict clean up.

The VA is only the largest and most obvious of such programs. The entire federal drug program is geared towards methadone. Even when trying to solve the methadone problem, the government still seeks a newer, better chemical to replace it rather than seeking the total elimination of drug addiction.

But the United Sates isn't the only country that has had drug problems. In fact, there is only one country that had almost five times the number of addicts here in this country. And today, that country is completely free of drug problems--not one addict, not even one user of hard stuff.

That country is the Peoples Republic of China. In old China, there were 10 million opium, morphine and heroin addicts. By 1952, three years after its liberation in 1949, drug addiction was wiping out in China, with the exception of the Taiwan province.

After the founding of the Peoples' Republic in 1949, the government took up wiping drug addiction as an important task. Anti-opium committees were set up in Peking and all provinces, municipalities and counties. Opium dens, which were everywhere in the country, were closed down by the peoples' government, and their attendants were given other jobs. The narcotics trafficking organization, made up of Kuomintang officials (Chiang Kai-shek's people), gangsters, get-rich-quick merchants and foreigners, who used aircrafts and warships to move opium to all parts of China, was banned for good. Opium pipes and stocks of opium derivatives were burned at rallies of the masses people.

The government issued an edict banning opium smoking, and passed regulations which put narcotics under strict control. Other laws place opium derivatives under complete regulation for medical purposes. But these laws were not the most important part of their campaign. The most important factor was that the people were fully mobilized for a mass movement against drug addiction.

A mass education campaign that lasted two years was begun in 1850. It exposed the terrible facts of drug use and enlisted the cooperation of the people in ending the scourge which had been promoted by foreign powers and their Chinese henchmen for over 100 years to dull both hunger and protest. Full publicity was given to the campaign by the press; posters were put up and short plays staged at street corners for people in both the urban and rural areas.

The government was patient in its persuasion of addicts to help themselves and seek help. Free treatment centers were set up all over China. When an addict left one of these centers free from drugs, celebrations were held in their communities to congratulate them and they were given productive work. Even for dealers there was patience, as punishment was combined with education. In fact, only 30 offenders were executed in all of China for failing to change their ways.

Three years after the enemies of the Chinese people were driven from power and fled to Taiwan, not violence or repression, but "social changes plus the awakening of the masses" eradicated China's centuries-old problem of drug addiction. Today, no Chinese below the age of 25 has had any experience with drugs other than for medical purposes.

What is the different about China that made it possible for then to end drug addiction? And why hasn't the same thing happened here? Simple. In China, it is the masses of people who control their own lives and their government. Here, government is controlled and run for a small handful of rich. And those in charge NEED drugs to control the anger of the masses of people. The Chinese people have pointed out the answer. Drug addiction can be ended once for all.

The Chinese people did not end their drug problem by sitting around and waiting for help. They had to fight for the changes that were needed. And that's what we have to do, too. We must demand that the VA end methadone maintenance and start drug-free programs. And we must rely on ourselves because it is the people of this country, veterans and non-vets, that have the power to change thing--not some red tape artist or poverty pimp. END METHADONE MAINTENANCE!!! DRUG-FREE PROGRAMS NOW!!!