November 17, 2002
A WORTHWHILE EXPERIMENT (THOUGH FAILED):
Great myths: prohibition had no effect on alcohol drinking (Iain Murray, November 15, 2002, Edge of England's Sword)Drug legalizers often claim that prohibition did not decrease the amount of alcohol drunk in the US. Rubbish.
Excellent chart found by the always edgy Mr. Murray. What's most interesting though is that people do in fact require such a chart to convince them of the obvious. Suppose for a moment that Prohibition were to return next week. No one would argue that it would "succeed", in the sense of truly prohibiting the consumption of alcohol. However, think of the entire range of settings--from office Christmas parties to sporting events to restaurants--where you may indulge now but would be at least unlikely to given a legal regime forbidding it. The notion that Prohibition had no effect is ludicrous on its face. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 17, 2002 9:05 AM
Comments
Yeah, but was the effect good or bad? Mixed?
I am just old enough to have known people
who were incipient drunks before white
powders became easily available. Some of the
drunks switched to powders, some stayed
with beer. All stayed stoned.
And every person I know from that period who
later ruined himself with powders was going
to have done it with booze if powders hadn't
come along.
The proportion of the zonked does not seem,
in my extensive experience, to vary much,
no matter what the details.
Good. Studies show things like liver diseases and domestic violence and what not to have declined during Prohibition too.
Posted by: oj at November 17, 2002 10:23 PM