John Fredrick Parker
Donor
So here's a thought -- would it have helped had the British East India Company not lost its legal monopoly on selling opium in 1833? Because AIR, it was really after this that the narcotic really started becoming prevalent, escalating the drug problem to the point that the Qing government felt it had to take "drastic" measures; ironically, had the British Parliament been more partial to the corporate favoritism, the Qing may well have left the problem alone for the time being, giving them more time to modernize should a later conflict with a western power break out.