In the old society, the society was closed due to traffic jams in Suiyang. For a long time, the economy has been backward and local government finances are empty. On the one hand, local warlords and bureaucrats take advantage of the opportunity to extort money and turn it into the main means of amassing wealth. Not only did they not ban smoking, but they also encouraged the people to grow a large number of cigarettes, resulting in the spread of tobacco and poison, the physical and mental damage of the people, the poverty of the people, and many people who lost their fortunes because of opium consumption, were weak and deprived.
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There are many people growing and smoking poppies in Suiyang. In Suiyang City, there are many smoke halls and groups of smokers. In the immediate aftermath of liberation, bandits, spies, and undercover agents used the tobacco hall to make connections, exchange information, spread gossip, and plot counter-revolutionary activities in an attempt to shake the nascent people's power.
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In March 1950, the county people's government issued a proclamation on "prevention and security in the city", article 7 of which clearly stipulated: "Anyone who opens a tobacco shop or sells opium shall immediately stop and transfer to regular business, and violators shall be dealt with according to the seriousness of the case." ”
In order to effectively implement the decree, the county people's government arranged for the public security bureau to cooperate closely with the tax bureau and other relevant units to ban tobacco shops, ban opium, and especially crack down on those big tobacco dealers who travel to and from various places. After accepting the task, the Public Security Bureau thoroughly inspected hotels and tobacco shops on the one hand, and on the other hand, investigated in detail the situation of opium trafficking, and cracked down on it as a major case. In July 1950, with the masses providing clues, the public security organs cracked a big tobacco case, severely punished drug traffickers, and greatly deterred drug traffickers and drug addicts. Later, drug trafficking and drug abuse activities went underground, making it difficult to combat drugs. In the second half of the year, farmers' associations were established in various parts of Suiyang, and the county party committee and government listed smoking banning as an important task of the current agricultural associations, publicizing the anti-drug ban to the masses with great fanfare, and at the same time calling on the masses to vigorously report and expose drug trafficking and drug use cases, and persuade smokers to quit drug addiction. The town's neighborhood farmers' associations require tobacco shop owners, tobacco dealers and smokers to take the initiative to register, hand over drugs, drug equipment, and drug money, and make written guarantees to the organization, otherwise they will be arrested.
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After the mass anti-smoking campaign was launched, the government set up a smoke-free drug rehabilitation class outside the north gate, and concentrated the "old smokers" in various places in stages and batches to study and force drug rehabilitation. Anyone who attends this detoxification class is not allowed to go home, and the relevant personnel supervise their oral smoking cessation pills and force them to perform manual labor. After quitting opium, these smokers thanked the government from the bottom of their hearts, realizing that it had saved them and given them a new life.
Except for a very small part of the opium seized during the smoking ban, it was handed over to the relevant units for drug dispensing, and the rest were burned in public.
Article excerpted from: History of Suiyang County of the Communist Party of China (1935-1978)