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![[Read eLetter]](/icons/misc/sectionDOWN.gif){kind=icon}
Did Prohibition Really Work?
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Clifford A Schaffer, Consultant None
Send letter to journal:
cschaffer{at}socal.rr.com Clifford A Schaffer
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Please note this is a corrected version of an earlier submission. Thanks. Jack Blocker left something out. Figures on drug consumption during prohibitions have one primary weak point -- people don't accurately report illegal activities. It is easy to track tax receipts from legal alcohol. It is not so easy to track the production of Al Capone and home breweries. Therefore, direct estimates of alcohol consumption during Prohibition are guesses, at best. Some people guess it was lower. Others, such as the US National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, concluded it was probably higher. None of those summaries give an accurate picture. A better picture comes from the statistics for alcohol-related arrests. Alcohol-related arrests declined from about 1913 to about 1922, and rose sharply thereafter. By 1925, alcohol-related arrests for most major cities were already above the pre-prohibition records. By the statistics we can confirm, alcohol problems set new records during Prohibition. But that hardly tells the entire story. There are other facts that are not in dispute. -- Homicides skyrocketed during Prohibition and fell immediately upon its repeal. -- Prohibition provided the Mafia with incredible wealth. Al Capone set a world record for personal income that lasted more than fifty years. -- Alcohol and narcotics violations accounted for more than half the prisoners in Federal prisons. -- 70,000 people per year were arrested for prohibition violations -- Corrupt cops were sent to prison literally by the trainload. But even that does not tell the entire story. If Prohibition had only been a failure in public drunkenness, homicides, organized crime, prisons, and police corruption, one might still argue that it "worked". The worst effect was the drinking by children. Prohibition was passed with a campaign of "Save the Children From Alcohol." Within five years, record numbers of teens were in court and in hospitals for alcohol-related problems. Schools had to cancel dances because so many kids showed up drunk. Children became involved in the bootlegging trade. The average age at which people started drinking dropped dramatically. Prohibition supporters turned against it because their children found it easier to get booze. Prohibition was repealed with a campaign of "Save the Children from Prohibition." For a more entertaining perspective on how Prohibition "worked", I recommend the wonderful quotes from John Sullivan and other major labor leaders at http://druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm A more comprehensive view of prohibition can be found in the collected works at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. An explanation of the “Iron Law of Prohibitions” can be found in the short history of the marijuana laws at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm |
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