It’s not like they discovered drugs and then just stopped doing anything else;
Except that is what did happen during Qing Dynasty’s rule. You would do better by watching Nathan Rich’s Epic China series, by far the most educational series/documentary on Imperial China history. I cannot think of any media outside China that has done a job as authentic and good as him, and his work has yet only covered since ancient China upto the first Opium War by 8 Nation Alliance. It is still in progress.