Like most people, Lin Zexu has always focused on punishing profiteers and strictly checking opium imports. Only after Huang Jue put forward the idea of strictly controlling tobacco poisoning, in "the poison of opium is shared by several people, and the local officials thought it was full of enthusiasm, so they were afraid of difficulties" (Ministry of War recorded the vice memorial, and Lin Zexu Daoguang gave a speech on the second day of August in the eighteenth year. Under certain historical conditions, Lin Zexu thinks it is absolutely necessary to punish the crime of smoking again. However, most people still advocate distinguishing profiteers who grow and sell opium from opium smokers.
Objectively speaking, compared with the cultivation, transportation and trafficking of opium, the harm to society is very different. Although smokers have become social waste and scum, smoking opium is not profitable for them. Many of them are long-term addicts and can't quit. When smoking addiction broke out, their pain was more than punishment, so in order to solve the immediate pain, they even risked beheading. Although it is necessary to severely punish smokers, it is impossible to solve all problems only by severe punishment and strict laws. Lin Zexu's smoking ban in Hubei Province is effective. One of the important reasons is that he combined smoking ban with quitting smoking and formulated a prescription for quitting smoking, which made most people happy to quit smoking. When Lin Zexu was in Hubei, "In addition to the official drug addiction pills, the smoking cessation drugs distributed by the provincial capital Han Zhen Pharmacy are out of stock, and they are not sold every day. Drugs such as Korean ginseng and American ginseng have already increased in price several times. " There are words like "women who are famous for kowtowing on the road. It is said that their husbands and men have been addicted to cigarettes for a long time, but fortunately they have given up drugs and their bodies are getting stronger and stronger". (The Ministry of War recorded the memorial, and Lin Zexu wished it on the second day of August in the eighteenth year of Daoguang; )
In a word, it is useless to solve the opium problem only by controlling tobacco under the situation that opium smoke is rampant and hard to return. Only by combining smoking ban with quitting smoking, taking a multi-pronged approach, such as re-treating opium imports, cracking down on hoarding and returning goods, and severely punishing smoking, can the harm of opium smoke be eradicated. No matter what kind of smoking ban measures, people need to do it and spend money to do it. It is by no means a paper order and a few articles of association that can be effective.
The direct result of this great discussion was that Lin Zexu went to Haikou, Guangdong Province as an imperial envoy to ban smoking, which was just ignored in Huang Juezi's memorial, and most government officials strongly advocated cutting off the source of opium and restoring Haikou, with obvious anti-aggression tendency. Therefore, the so-called views of relaxation and prohibition actually supplement the shortcomings in Huang Jue's works.
To sum up, we believe that it is obviously unscientific to misinterpret a nationwide discussion on how to ban smoking as a big confrontation between anti-smoking and anti-smoking groups, and to take whether or not to agree to the death penalty for opium addicts as the standard of the two factions. This discussion, whether the question is raised, the discussion process or even the final result, is aimed at prohibiting opium trafficking and smoking. Smoking ban and anti-smoking are not a big debate, and there are no two major factions that advocate and oppose smoking ban in politics.