Ministry of Health and Welfare officials presented information from the UN, which said that there was insufficient evidence to support the wide use of cannabis for medical purposes, and said that no country in Asia allows cannabis or cannabis products for medicinal use, and neither should Taiwan.
It sounds like an appeal to Asian solidarity. Recently there has been some discussion in Thailand about legalization for medicinal purposes. To be fair, they’ve been talking about same sex marriage in Thailand for years and haven’t gone ahead with that, but who knows what the future holds?
Over the past eight years I’ve asked my adult students and school-aged ones, which do they think Taiwan would legalize first, gay marriage or marijuana? 99% have consistently answered “gay marriage.” I think they’re probably right.
Well, to be fair, Chinese do have bad memories of opium being used to wreck their social fabric and allow Europe and the UK to gain control over parts of China. So I think they are adverse to any drug and don’t want to risk a repeat of that.
Except that Taiwanese are culturally Chinese and have a lot of history shared with China. Also considering the kmt came from China and probably are aware of the opium wars.
I would think most of Asia is aware of that and their governments take a hard line stance towards any kinds of drugs to avoid repeating it.
Plus I get the impression that Taiwan doesn’t want to become a destination for Asian potheads to hang out.
The lost KMT army that ended up in Burma was central to the Golden Triangle opium production. Japanese controlled Taiwan also had significant numbers of opium users.
It’s a complicated history of social debauchery vs revenues. The West also had massive issues with opium and other poppy based opiates long into the early 1900s
As for weed, it’s surprising how many locals I meet that smoke it regularly or from time to time, there must be quite a big underground growing operation going on somewhere on this island.
Yeah I heard quite a few smokers but the problem is once the cops test you you ARE screwed. Citizens will be in trouble with sometimes mandatory jail time in horrible ‘rehab jails’, but foreigners are in a much worse situation as they can deported.
It’s very easy to test for, I would never touch the stuff in Taiwan too risky (I will smoke overseas from time to time). I’m always surprised at long term
Residents with families who will smoke it.
If the cops raid your house and find a certain qty you are
Certainly it would be very easy to grow vannabis plants here outdoors but I think it is likely there are some growers in mountains but also Indoors under cover of veg production or factory production.
Except that during the Opium wars, the British navy did try to annex Taiwan, mainly for camphor and tea. After the outbreak of the First Opium war in 1939, the British navy sent several ships to attack Tainan, Keelung and Taichung.
The first British warship arrived at Tainan on June 18, 1840. It quickly decided the defensive batteries were well positioned and turned away.
That was followed by HMS Nerbudda first opening fire on Keelung’s Uhrshawan Battery (二沙灣砲台) on Aug 13th, 1841. The Nerbudda miss judged the range of the Qing battery and got damaged by return fire. When the ship tried to flee Keelung bay, it ran a reef and sunk. The Qing army took 133 Indians prisoner, and 10 English officers and 22 other Indians died in battle.
The British then sent another warship demanding the release of prisoners, but Taiwan authorities stonewalled them. So on Oct. 19th the second ship opened fired on Uhrshawan Battery, and totally obliterated the place. Troops also landed at Sanshawan Beach, however was met with Qing resistance. The second ship left on the 20th.
By Jan. 24 1842, the British sent HMS Brig Ann to Taichung to begin an invasion there. Taiwanese defenders lured the Brig Ann into Da’an river, and successfully stranded it. They then opened fire on the Brig Ann. 10 British soldiers were killed. Another 18 British officers, 1 Native American, 30 Indians, 5 Cantonese were taken prisoner.
By the end of the first Opium war, a total of 139 prisoners were executed, 30 died in prison, and only F. A. Denlian (Captain of the Brig Ann) and 8 other officers survived and got returned to England. Since Qing ultimately lost the First Opium War, the commanding officers in the Defense of Taiwan were exiled at the request of the British Empire.
Had the British Empire annexed Taiwan, history would have been very different. Taiwan’s waters were really dangerous. It became more navigable under the Japanese, who used bombs to clear out all obstacle in the Keelung and Kaohsiung harbor.
Recently there has been some discussion in Thailand about legalization for medicinal purposes. To be fair, they’ve been talking about same sex marriage in Thailand for years and haven’t gone ahead with that, but who knows what the future holds?