Gin War?

"The British wanted a way of financially exploiting the massive population of China. They chose opium to do so, because it is an addictive drug and could be manufactured in large quantities close
to the Chinese market. It was a product which created its own demand, and was therefore ideal for the purpose of exploiting the Chinese market for financial gain.
The social and moral consequences of creating many tens of millions
of drug addicts in China was irrelevant to them, of course. Like all good capitalists, the British held to the belief that "whatever makes money is moral; whatever loses money is immoral". If they didn't have opium to sell, they would have sold tobacco or alcohol or slaves, or something else. The British had excess capital from their industrialisation, which they needed to invest in new markets.
The Chinese market was just too big not to exploit - and opium was
the ideal product to use to exploit that market.
The Chinese nation was relatively backward and weak, so it could
not effectively resist that exploitation."