The misuse of opium and its derivatives, medicinal drugs, illegal drugs of all sorts, and alcohol, has destroyed the lives of so many in cities and communities throughout America and other western nations. Quite obviously, the reason that such misuse of drugs has created such havoc is the pernicious addicting nature that many of these drugs have, though under good medical supervision, some of these may be necessary for particular patients under particular circumstances, they are often over-prescribed, overused, and ultimately debilitating in their long term consequences.
The fact that there is such a plentitude of these drugs, illegal or legal, that are readily available in abundance, indicates that the manufacturers and distributors of these drugs, whether illegal or legal in their status, are benefiting monetarily from the sales and distribution of such, while the recipients of these drugs, of whom, no doubt, some of these drugs are necessary for their pain management, or stress relief, or other legitimate uses; obscures the most salient fact, that these drugs are too often abused by people that have no or little legitimate reason to utilize them in the first place, enticed by them because they enjoy the euphoric effect they get from these drugs or for other similar reasons, yet they partially or wholly discount their addictive properties and the harm that will ultimately be done to body and mind.
Incredibly, back in the 19th century, when Great Britain was the greatest economic power in the world, they somehow made the conscious decision, in order to balance their trade with China, to essentially export opium, manufactured within their English colony of India, to China, in lieu of paying for Chinese exports such as tea, silk, and porcelain with actual valued coinage such as silver, which England very well knew the value of, replacing that instead with opium. As might be expected, China was none to please to receive opium in return, as it was against imperial policy, but bribed imperial officials allowed opium to become imported as well as the fact that China did not have the military infrastructure to preclude England from demanding or persuading such to have their way.
Still, the importation of opium and its devastating effects upon the Chinese population, did necessitate an armed and determined response by the Chinese, to defend their homeland and to protect their people, of which, in both opium wars of the 19th century, China was defeated, which lead to their ports being opened to foreign traders as well as Hong Kong being annexed to Great Britain. While this worked out rather well for Great Britain and other western nations, times indeed have changed, and China, today, is no longer the footstool of western powers.
Additionally, today's China is a major powerhouse of chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, both legally and illegally, whether sanctioned or unsanctioned, and exports its production, wittingly or not, of these synthetic drugs to western nations, so that people within these nations are subject to the powerful synthetic opioid, known as fentanyl, and the even more potent substances such as carfentanil, amongst many others. China is incredibly gifted in the creation of all sorts of synthetic chemical manufacturing, in which, these substances are rather small and even minute in size, but powerful in their ill effects upon the human body. The importation of these substances are incredibly lucrative to those distributing them within western nations, so that bribing the appropriate officials is commonplace, creating the situation of dependent opioid users in western nations, suffering from the ill effects of such an addiction, not wholly unexpected, as a vibrant form of opium blowback.