> I'll bet a lot of people involved in the fentanyl trade don't even know much about the Opium Wars anyways.

I’ll bet you aren’t familiar with the grammar school Chinese history curriculum.

Besides, as a modern kingpin, think with scale! Recruiting goes much smoother when you can sell it as “you’re a soldier for the country, fighting an undercover war”. How many companies have “make money” as their mission statement besides Amazon?

The comparison to Canada and prohibition doesn’t pass the smell test. Given that the war of 1812 wasn’t predicated on getting the Canadians into a drunken stupor as a tactic of economic warfare.

Oh, and as far as USA vs British East India Company, it’s all “the west” in the end.