I haven’t read this yet, simply skimmed a few sentences here and there. This is really insightful helpful info that every American (and everyone with interest in America) should absolutely check out. The info covers last year, 2022, and how America is changing, spoiler alert, it ISN’T for the better. The writer really didn’t pull punches. This article is essentially China’s version of 2pac’s Hit Em Up. And instead of Notorious B.I.G. as the target, it’s the USA.
This is incredible. Feel like it’s been a while since we’ve gotten such an extensive condemnation, or polemic, out of the socialist-governed world, and it’s even bigger coming out of China. The struggle for multipolarity is paving the way for a brighter future, and I am glad the CPC feels confidently positioned enough to release information like this.
From my own perspective, there is some strange or personally disagreeable stuff about cannabis in the article, although I agree that its prevalence among the youth, as in teens and children, is indeed a societal failure, and that the burgeoning U.S. weed industry is just as exploitative and horrible as the rest. I do think it is likely cannabis has great medicinal potential, and I do not think full-blown criminalization is the answer.
I read some takes on this from Chinese ppl to get their perspective, and I’ve come to agree with it. Some points:
- There is no historical or cultural use of cannibis in China. People just don’t smoke it, and those that do only do so after they adopted it while being in western countries. The decision then becomes, do we allow the import of this non-indigenous substance and industry?
- They’re have a strong anti-drug stance given the history of Opium used as a tool of colonization, pacification, mass suffering, and death. The introduction of new, non-indigenous drugs is not taken lightly considering that history.
- It stinks. Most people live in close quarters, in large apartment buildings in cities. Alcohol is something that you consume, and doesn’t usually affect strangers. I live in an apartment in the US, and I had to get a door stopper thing just to keep the gross-smelling stink out from a neighbor down the hall. For some reason I’ve found the vast majority of potheads in the US to be some flavor of “don’t tread on me” libertarians, who love to do exactly that to other ppl with their smells.
- The weed / drug industry is not a productive industry, and is harmful from a Marxist perspective. Most charitably, you could liken it to something like an unhealthy food, which isn’t something any country should be giving it’s citizens access to.
The US, like with everything, is going over the top with their weed culture imo. It’s one thing wanting to smoke joints but to make it your entire identity is just weird. In The Netherlands, where it has been semi legal for decades now, you don’t have such a prominent weed culture. Apart from tourists in Amsterdam I’ve never been bothered by anyone smoking weed. I sometimes forget we’re allowed to smoke it because of the absence of people doing it out in public, bothering others. I’ve been around the block a few times with drugs, being part of multiple subcultures who are known for their drug usage, and I’ve never met a single person making an identity of smoking weed. Not saying whatever the Dutch are doing is the perfect way, but it’s very different compared to the US.
Definitely, ppl who are “stoners” or make weed their life is cringe. Can’t say that a few of my friends aren’t like that lol, it has its benefits but the cringe t-shirts in public are tough to be seen w🤣
The “weed is my personality” people remind me of the Quentin memes.
this is hilarious, especially in its self-seriousness
(however I did at one point have friends exactly like le stoner)
Some of them get even more ridiculous than that.
What do Stalin, Hitler, Jesse James and Ted Bundy have in common?
That’s right. They all did things in moderation.
I agree with all of this. I also really miss having access to CBD oil in Hong Kong as a means of pain management and anxiety control.
I might have recourse to better treatment for both pain and mental health in a socialist system, but Hong Kong remains capitalist and weed is an excellent coping mechanism for capitalism.
I agree with mostly everything, and echo some of the points in my other comment. I am curious as to how we should liken weed to unhealthy food, though, as from my experience and understanding it has valuable medicinal value (mentally and physically). The industry writ large is worth condemning, and the U.S. state only wants it to be legalized (in some places!) so they can use the tax money generated from purchases to ensure they can pay their military-industrial-complex beneficiaries. Speaking of, I would argue that the article’s stance is a little reductive insofar as the U.S. state is not an ideologically homogenous entity, and there is a war being waged within and without the annals of power to either legalize or further criminalize it. In either instance, the bourgeois state wins as it can collect tax revenue and find other reasons to imprison people, or can maintain the status quo in their slave-catching endeavors using drugs as the scapegoat. Perhaps that is part of why they refuse to deal with it on a federal level, it is more in line with their interests if some states legalize it and some don’t.
There’s no potential to cure epileptic seizures in an ice cream cone, but CBD and THC have been proven to help (I’ve seen it, anecdotally, with someone I’ve assisted before. Like night and day after a little THC extract). Not only is the carceral approach inhumane, but it’s also unscientific. There is much we could learn about these chemicals, including ‘psychadelics’ like psilocybin and LSD, and early testing in controlled clinical environments shows great promise in their ability to manage depression and anxiety more effectively than any SSRI that’s ever been manufactured.
I would argue for regulation, but not criminalization. Criminalization for large peddlers of opiates and amphetamines, yeah, but that would also include raiding every pharmacy nationwide. I empathize with the stinking of weed as well lol. All of my neighbors smoke like crazy and it stinks like hell around here sometimes, though the smoke from cannabis is far less lingering than that of cigarettes - usually lighting a candle or spraying something eliminates it. Not that it should be up to others to cover up your stench.
To reiterate, I agree and sympathize with China’s relationship with drugs, given their cultural and national history. Better or worse, it’s considerably different here and my own views have been in part shaped by that, I suppose.
I very much agree, it should be studied, and if it indeed does have medical benefits, then it could be offered along with other pharmaceuticals.
Cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco (which are dangerous, don’t get me wrong, but if people are free to consume a&t, then they should be free to consume cannabis). However, it’s not surprising given China’s colonial history of suffering at the hands of Western drug profiteers. Ultimately, it’s a cultural attitude that may or may not transform over time and the benefits of psychedelic substances becomes more medically verified.
And in the US, where mental healthcare is prohibitively expensive and inaccessible, cannabis and other psychedelics have taken its place. Personally, they got me through the pandemic shut down and have done wonders for my ptsd symptoms.
Agreed. In Amerika, we do not have much of an equivalent cultural history with drugs, and so it is easy to speak from my place of understanding. I still don’t agree with classifying a plethora of vastly different chemicals and plants under the name of “substances”, proceeded by condemning them wholesale and pursuing a carceral “war on drugs”.
In Amerika, our national history with drugs is long and shitty, but the state relegated the majority of the trauma to BIPOC internally and the global south externally (a la China, as mentioned prior, and many more nations). The drugs that are actually killing people here are primarily meth, heroin, cigarettes, opiates and alcohol. It’s certainly a societal ill that so many Amerikan youth are using cannabis, but I think it’s incomparable to the damage these drugs are causing. The Amerikan “wars on drugs” have been smokescreens hiding the true intent of the carceral state, to enslave more black and brown people after associating them with these drugs, including cannabis. In this event, the actual drugs themselves are totally irrelevant (excepting the fact that in many cases the state department is literally selling it), but the prison-industrial-complex and intentionally punitive approach to the ‘illicit’ drug problem are.
The pharmaceutical industry is making meth and selling it to your kids, even if the amphetamine is lacking the prefix. Their CEOs and the politicians who support them are comfortable with making, distributing and profiting from hard and highly addictive drugs, they just want to make sure there isn’t any competition. The enslaved laborers probably help, too.
I would not be the man I am today without weed and psychadelics, not to be too emotionally indulgent about it. I’m not perfect, but using these substances has immensely helped me in getting closer to being good.
The drugs that are actually killing people here are primarily meth, heroin, cigarettes, opiates and alcohol.
Would marijuana not be added to that list if its usage were as widespread as alcohol and tobacco, though?
Not that you’re doing this, as you are including caveats, but I find the whole discourse around weed problematic. The potential medical uses are used as an argument for widespread use by (going by the users I’ve met) young people who just want to get high. They’re not using it to avoid seizures, etc.
Any notion that we should be endorsing weed for supposed health benefits or as something with which to self medicate needs to be challenged. Maybe it can be used in a medical setting (I’m actually quite hopeful that it can). But in the current set up, that’s not really what’s being proposed.
And considering the standard of education where I live (I can’t see why it would be much higher anywhere else in the west), most people are not nearly knowledgeable enough to start self medicating. Most people who I’ve spoken to who are in favour of decriminalisation/legalisation seem to be under the impression that because there are some potential medical uses that weed is somehow ‘safe’ and ‘good for you’. This is, of course, the intended impression from those who stand to profit from it’s legal sale but neither is generally true.
I’m all for decriminalisation, btw; as that seems to be one sensible tool in the fight against racial policing. (On the other hand, if it wasn’t drugs, the institutionally racist police would simply find another reason for racial policing, so….)
But otherwise, I think the whole issue needs to be approached with far, far more caution than it’s currently given (generally speaking). The decriminalisation point tends to be interpreted as ‘this is fine and deemed safe now’, but it’s not. As you say above, there are two competing bourgeois factions with a view on weed. Any progressive policy needs to be critical of both.
Strongly agree with the comparison with unhealthy food. Sugar and processed fats are possibly far more dangerous than weed, simply because they’re more-or-less invisible and ubiquitous. At least most people can’t keep a job and get high or drunk 24/7; there’s a natural limit to their use and to still ‘function’ in society (I’m talking about recreational use, here). That’s not true of sugar, which people can guzzle and consume every wakeful hour.
And if this is approached from an overall public health issue, we’re better off legalising most drugs, educating people about them, creating safe environments for their consumption, and – wait for it – adequately regulating working environments to (not exhaustively): (a) minimise alienation, which leads people to over indulge in all recreational drugs (especially alcohol); (b) prevent employers from forcing employees to be either sat down or stood up hours in end; and © prevent employers from putting employees in any position where they have to manage pain in the first place or risk starvation.
The problem is, the industry views aren’t at all concerned with public health but profits, and if we make progress down this regulatory path, public consciousness will already have changed to such an extent that everything is up in the air and open to positive change.
It’s a good question. I agree pretty much 100%, and wrt weed from my understanding the prevailing belief is currently that smoking weed is not as bad for your lungs as smoking cigarettes, but in the end it’s still depositing tar and ash in users’ lungs. I’ve thought about how it’s a little strange that we’re being sold something smokeable as a potential medical treatment, when we know that smoke inhalation is itself dangerous and adverse to health. It feels almost like we’re going through another 1950s “cigarettes make you sexy and cure obesity!” phase of propaganda lol, and in 25 years everyone will be laughing at how absurd the claims about weed were. At least I hope.
Although this can also be seen as a rather natural albeit unscientific reaction to weed stemming from the masses, a revolt against the illegality of it and the lies about it, reefer madness etc. From my personal experience, my lungs, body and mind all feel far better as a habitual weed-enjoyer than when I was smoking cigarettes (although I still vape nicotine, so they could be doing even better). Anecdotal of course, and I’ve also spent a long time engaging with it and researching drugs of all forms. I will say I got into weed when I was only 17, that and drinking, and that combination sort of ruined my life for a little bit… it’s hard to say why my life sucked so hard then, heavy drug use or the bipolar disorder or the trauma or what have you, but I’m sure ripping a bong every morning, midday and night was not helping matters - just constantly dissociated.
Now, weed helps me exercise, introspect and escape the chronic pain for a while. Helps me shower and brush my teeth. Maybe it’s because those are the intentions I’m going in with, to get better rather than to get “fucked up” like I used to. Just sharing some of my experience, and I agree completely with your analysis and ideas regarding regulation and education. I shouldn’t have had my hands on it or hard alcohol at 17, but I’m glad I’ve got access to THC now, you know? In a socialist world with a better understanding of chronic illness and healthier medications for dealing with it, as well as less alienation, I may not feel the desire to smoke so much.
The potential medical uses are used as an argument for widespread use by (going by the users I’ve met) young people who just want to get high. They’re not using it to avoid seizures, etc.
yooo just take a hit bro I swear to god this shit cures cancer (inhales an entire 3.5g in one puff, vomits and dies)
There’s a dude on YT who does exactly that shit, he took a legitimate full one gram dab on camera and he made a 2 parter. 1st part is him ripping it, 2nd video is him coughing his lungs out and nearly passing out and coming close to vomiting(he doesn’t). Crazy shit, makes you not wanna smoke tbh
I hate how fast weed burns. It makes you feel like you’re in a race to make sure you don’t waste any. Inhale, inhale, inhale. Maybe I’m just packing wrong, but I’d prefer if a weed cig / J burned at the same pace as a cigarette. Or if it deadened your filia like tobacco does so you don’t cough lol, but in a somehow not dangerous way 😵💫 Mixing tobacco and weed is a way to do it, although I shouldn’t have to emphasize to stay away from tobacco at all costs. There may be a healthier way to enjoy it, but shit is addictive like crazy.
Dabs are a little different, but they still go fast, and if it was a dab vape those feel like absolutely nothing when you inhale them. It’s the fuckin exhale that gets ya, at least in my experience.
Yea nicotine is addictive, working on quitting now. And also I’m not very big on smoking bud bc I agree it burns up fast and seems like a waste of money. I live in a legal state so I do get stuff that I know isn’t gonna kill me bc it’s a fake cartridge or something(a huge problem in the US that’s not talked about, one of marijuana’s biggest obstacles to pass because plenty of people associate marijuana with those Mario Carts or whatever fake shit is out there bc of a lack of regulation.) only way I know to genuinely save bud from being used up too quickly is those vaporization bags. You put a tiny tiny amount of weed in the vaporizer and it fills up a bag that you inhale. You don’t need to inhale the whole thing in a minute or anything, you can pace it out over a few minutes. Or if you know how you can gravity bong but it’s a bit advanced for me and I never did it
I hope China sanctions the US for their human rights violations
Not sure about the thread title… the US’s grasp isn’t slipping: they’ve been taking every opportunity to yeet human rights into the sun from day one, when those pustulent bougie ‘founding father’ ghouls signed their declaration that metastesized the cancer of capitalism and damned us all to lifetimes of misery.
I’m really glad the mask is slipping, though.
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Human Rights rest firmly on property rights. It is the language of imperialism and always has been. I personally would not use this language to criticize the US anymore than I would obtusely concern-troll about any imperial hypocracy, as if the whole point isnt to establish, legitimize, and reproduce class society.
It is not a surprise that the US fails the standards it sets for the world anymore than it is a surprise that the US engages in protectionism while demanding others fully submit to market relations. It is to be assumed because it is how it designed to function.
Basically I am less impressed than I hoped. I don’t care about narratives of righteousness and hypocracy. I want to see the entire structure challenged. I want a robust critique of Human Rights, not to see this rhetoric repurposed because I doubt it can be. To criticize the US with the rhetoric of HR legitimizes the empire and the global simulations it curates.
TIL about 127e. This article really didn’t hold back thanks for posting!
