1. externalities related to drug use are largely a consequence of their status as illegal. a lack of public awareness and any reasonable regulation create a situation where illicitly substances are orders of magnitude more dangerous than they need to be. To use china as a stand in here ignores a lot of history as well as fundamental differences in social organization that make assumptions non-portable to a western context
2. so what? do we fix their lack of information but allowing the DEA to publish (demonstrably false and misleading) propaganda under a guise of 'think of the children'? To assume that the DEA themselves aren't seceptible to bad actors is downright naive, dangerous even. All evidence points to the fact that our drug policy has failed to mitigate any of the social costs related to drugs, and in most cases, has increased social burden.
2. so what? do we fix their lack of information but allowing the DEA to publish (demonstrably false and misleading) propaganda under a guise of 'think of the children'? To assume that the DEA themselves aren't seceptible to bad actors is downright naive, dangerous even. All evidence points to the fact that our drug policy has failed to mitigate any of the social costs related to drugs, and in most cases, has increased social burden.