cannabisnews.com: A Toast To The End of Prohibition 





A Toast To The End of Prohibition 
Posted by FoM on December 05, 1999 at 21:05:10 PT
By Cynthia Bass
Source: San Francisco Examiner 
DEC. 5 is the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition - once known as "the Noble Experiment" and one of the most alarming examples of the law of unintended consequences in U.S. history.
As we continue our war on drugs, the saga of our earlier war on alcohol is a reminder of what can go wrong when good intentions become matters of legislation. Alcohol has been part of America since the Puritans. "Dramshops" and taverns are among the earliest businesses on record, and 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. "whiskey breaks" were common in all 13 colonies. Attempts to curtail consumption also are nothing new. Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of independence and the first great voice for sobriety, wrote of a man who progressed from "toddies to grog to slings to raw rum" - a progression echoed in the marijuana-to-everything else argument of today. While Rush and some of the earliest "drys" were against hard liquor only, others called for complete abstinence from alcohol, signing the "T" pledge - "T" for "total" - and thus introducing in 1834 the word "teetotaler" to the vocabulary. Alcohol abuse was not something the "drys" (a term they embraced) invented out of thin air. Alcoholism in the early 19th century is estimated to have afflicted 8 percent of the population - today's figure is 10 percent - and after the Civil War, the percentage rose even higher. Moreover, to raise money for the Union, Lincoln levied high taxes on liquor - a measure which, although meant to be temporary, raked in so much money so fast that the federal government soon grew addicted to this new stream of revenue and had no desire to lose it. The early temperance societies - and the later ones, for that matter - were not, as the common stereotype has it, a bunch of small-town, small-minded prudes. Far from it - almost all of them supported such progressive causes as the abolition of slavery, women's rights, prison reform, child labor laws and, later, universal free education. Nor were they all convinced that government could or should be involved in an individual's decision to drink or abstain; many felt this choice had to come from the heart, not the government, and vigorously opposed legislation. All this changed in the 1890s, with the founding of the Anti-Saloon League, an extremely well-organized grassroots group whose only cause was legalized national prohibition. No more progressivism or debates over law vs. individual choice; they demanded a constitutional amendment. Just after World War I, on Oct. 28, 1919, they received it: the 18th Amendment, making the "manufacture, sale or transportation" of alcohol - except within the home or for medical, religious or industrial purposes - illegal. Prohibition became official in America in 1920, at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 17. In the hours before dawn that day, there were three whiskey heists in Chicago alone. By the time Prohibition was repealed 13 years later, New York City was arraigning 50,000 violators annually; one out of 12 government revenue agents had been fired "for cause" ; Al Capone pulled off the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and one of California's giant redwoods was raided and found to contain a still. The chance to make money off a banned substance proved irresistible. Speakeasies bloomed, selling "bathtub gin" right under the eyes of bribed policemen. Death rates soared: 500 gangland killings in Chicago, 12,000 deaths from drinking denatured industrial alcohol. Alcohol-related crime affected every level of society, as revenue agents gunned down petty suspects as casually as crime lords gunned down each other. Socially destructive as all this violence was, the accompanying corruption was even worse; as New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia pointed out, it would take 250,000 policemen to enforce Prohibition and 250,000 more to police the police. By the late '20s, only the most diehard "drys" still supported the 18th Amendment, and on Dec. 5, 1933 - "the happiest day of this Great Depression," as one newspaper said - the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th. Prohibition was finished. The 18th Amendment remains the only one ever revoked. Was the 18th Amendment a good idea? Alcohol consumption did go down during Prohibition - although mostly it just went underground. But crime shot way up, as America as a whole discovered within itself an unexpectedly widespread willingness to place personal freedom (not to mention profit) above the law. More important yet was our discovery of just how difficult it is to legislate human behavior, even when that behavior is self-destructive. Our current war on drugs may be noble, but perhaps the early temperance workers were right: The decision of what goes into our bodies must be made in our hearts, not jammed down our throats. Historian Cynthia Bass is an Examiner columnist. Published: Dec. 5, 1999 ©1999 San Francisco Examiner 
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Comment #5 posted by dddd on May 10, 2001 at 21:08:59 PT
Daniel Petty
It's a good thing that you have chosen to avoid all drugs.No one here is trying to suggest that drugs,(that includes alcohol),are something that people should do.The reality is that people do use drugs,both legal and illegal.If you step back for a moment,and look at what "The War on Drugs"has done to this "great country",you might understand what our concern is.It's more of an issue of Constitutional rights,and freedom,than it is about advocating drug use. I think if you look into the situation,you will see that there is alot more going on in the drug war,than it would appear.....Someday you will know what we are talking about....Thank you for commenting...dddd
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on May 10, 2001 at 20:31:46 PT
Why I Do What I Do
Hello Daniel,I think you don't understand why I approach this issue the way I do. I am not for drug or alcohol use. My mother was a very bad alcoholic. I know how bad it is but jail will not help your brother. It wouldn't have helped my mother. That's all I want from this. I don't want people who have substance abuse problem to go to jail. I hope this helps explain why I do what I do. I don't think drugs or alcohol are an answer to anyones problems. Thank You for your comment.
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Comment #3 posted by Daniel Lynn Petty on May 10, 2001 at 20:20:24 PT:
anti-drug/alcohol
To whom it may concern:I am a very big activist against drugs and especially the biggest legal drug "ALCOHOL". I don't understand why everyone has so much trouble understanding that drinking ALCOHOL and taking drugs is wrong? Alcohol doesn't taste good, although I wouldn't know, because I have abstained from drinking my whole 20 years of life. Alcohol tears apart families and distroys lives. I know the affects of alcohol all to well. My brother is a very heavy drinker and his life it very messed up. He has just gotten his third DUI. I am very saddened about these events but he is going to have to straiten his life out on his own because he has had too many chances to change his life. I don't know how anyone can become so brainwashed in thinking that drugs and alcohol can be the solution to all their problems when in all reality they are the cause. People like the makers of this web site need to wake up and see all the destruction that alcohol is doing to America's families and to the youth of this great nation. Sincerely,Daniel Petty
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Comment #2 posted by Jane Klein on December 06, 1999 at 15:42:15 PT:
End of Prohibition
Did you know that the latest assault on constitutional rights in the name of the Drug War has been fueled by our own Senator Dianne Feinstein? She co-authored an ammendment to an anti-methamphetamine bill that made it a feloney "to teach or demonstrate the manufacture of a controlled substance" (S.486, S.625). The best chance to protect 1st Ammendment rights is to alert supporters of an equivalent House Bill (HR2987). Perhaps they can crack down on Methamphetamine without blatantly restricting free
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Comment #1 posted by Myopinion on December 06, 1999 at 08:39:05 PT
End of Prohibition
Teriffic article. The parallels to today's WOD are astounding and painfully obvious.
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