Volcel jokes aside, that's unfortunate.
Overall, I do think China is on the right track. but they def. have their issues with trying to legislate morality a little too much.
I don't think Gianna Michaels/hentai is going to inspire the populace to take up arms in a capitalist revolution.
Yeah agree, it's the same silly stance that most of Asia takes against drugs as well - extremely tough, disproportionate sentences for possession of any drug, incuding mandatory death sentences. You can't make life miserable for people and then not even let them have an out of any kind.
And before someone says it: Yes, China and other countries in the area had a very rough history with opium. Still doesn't mean all drugs should be insanely prosecuted tho.
The Chinese think it does, and I think they know more about the history of drug addiction and its material effects on their country than we do.
I don't think I have to be a Chinese resident to say that, weed for example, would not be the downfall of global communism.
There's different histories informing your and their viewpoints. Making marijuana and other drugs illegal in the US has been used as a way to crack down on and internally colonize poor people and minorities by funneling them into prison and breaking their political organizations. Making it illegal in China was a way to elevate China from foreign domination, as the opium trade had been imposed on them by the British, and widespread opium addiction did tremendous damage to their society. I don't think there can be a single drug policy for two countries with vastly different material conditions and histories. I don't know if their drug policy is right or wrong, I just know that they're coming from a very different place than we are.
And I do acknowledge that.
But I still think, even with that in mind, enough time has passed where they can at least handle something as soft/harmless as marijuana, which is a far cry from a hard-ass addictive drug like opium.
This is a bizarre take tbh. A Chinese person smoking weed is no better or worse than an American doing the same. The history can tell us why things are the way things are, but I don't understand how it makes sense to say that one country ought to have harsh penalties while another country shouldn't. If a drug can be used as a tool for domination, then perhaps you could argue that it should be banned, but if it can dominate Chinese people then it can dominate Americans just as well. And if a drug is harmless here, then it is harmless there.
What specific material conditions currently exist in China that cause marijuana to be so much more harmful and dangerous, compared to material conditions in the US?
I'm not talking about how dangerous the drug in itself is. I'm saying that a bunch of westerners grousing about Chinese policies towards marijuana is kind of a bad look. If the Chinese people feel differently towards marijuana than we do, we should just try to understand where they're coming from and respect their laws and preferences, instead of judging them.
I agree that it can be a bad look and that there are more important things to focus on. But ideally, it ought to be decriminalized. I don't really disagree with your stance with that clarification, I think I just found the phrasing a little weird.