Cambodia vs. China

China and Cambodia were both serious examples of drug trade that reversed roles of government. The drug situation in both China and Cambodia very seriously hurt the respective countries greatly from an economic standpoint. In China when opium was shipped throughout the country, people ignored the fact that was illegal, and the country-wide addiction killed the country's labor. Because people became addicted to opium, they no longer could work and the economy was basically destroyed. Cambodia had more emphasis on their own environment, as it was full of trees that contain the oil to produce ecstasy. Although it was illegal, ecstasy actually did become a problem in Cambodia, like opium in China.

This issue is slightly different than the problem in China, mostly because of the international effect. In addition to hurting their own economy, China's opium problem also completely stimulated Britain's economy. As the addiction rate for opium raised and problems arose in China, Britain was making more and more money selling the opium to China. The only money that was really being made with the ecstasy was by Vietnam, who actually made the ecstasy from the oil and then sold it for a significant profit. The difference however in these two cases is that China gave up their role as the dominant country after the opium problem from an economic and production standpoint. Cambodia however, was not effected as much as China in comparison to other countries, because they didn't quite kill their economy and completely boost another country's economy to the most successful in the world.

There was in fact a second drug problem in Cambodia. People began to be addicted to methamphetamine: a highly addictive and harmful drug. This had an effect similar to opium in China because many people were addicted and so parts of the country practically shut down. It was particularly a problem among the youth in Cambodia, who started mostly from pressure from other people. Because it is so addictive, as people started to take meth, it spread very rapidly through the country and more and more people began to become addicted. The drug problem in both China and Cambodia slowed down the country greatly.