Prohibition of alcohol was tried 106 years ago on January 16, 1919. In a time before social safety nets alcoholism caused devastating problems in the United States. The idea of prohibitionists was popular enough that it was not just a legislation from Congress and signed into law by the president... it was a constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, organized crime combined with political corruption turned what was meant to end all sorts of horrible problems turned into a spectacular circus.
As you are aware the media and Madison Avenue have been encouraging and aggrandizing alcohol use since prohibition was ended 85 years ago. And the media has now been aggrandizing marijuana use for approximately the past 50 years. People now expect that when they completely screw their lives up through substance abuse that the government will step in to take care of them and their families. So there is no longer any urgency as there was when prohibition was enacted to save women and children who were suffering and dying when their providers were not taking care of them and abusing them.
So no, prohibition of alcohol would not be appropriate at this time. But neither is selling hard liquor in every retail outlet and flooding the airways and internet with movies and television shows and slick ads encouraging its use.
Thank goodness there is no more organized crime nor political corruption - or else marijuana prohibition would be a spectacular circus, rather than having ended all marijuana problems.
“So no, prohibition of alcohol would not be appropriate at this time.”
I get that, but then I look at the devastation caused by liquor and wonder. I know in my own family it has caused untold misery and deprivation. Far worse than most are able to comprehend.
And millions of others as well. 10s of millions.
I cannot imagine any substance that would even compare to such destruction of the human family and soul. Certainly in all of human history none has.
Yet the vast majority of folks are OK with it being legal.
I think that’s because they think it’s OK for people to choose. Right or wrong. Good or bad.
And they know the impact on Law and Order when the state tries, and is able, to prevent the people from making those choices. Gangs, corruption of LEO, dirty money and murder. And a litany of bad social impacts exacerbated by the information age and the surveillance state.
That’s why I choose full, nationwide legalization. People must be allowed to fail. And the rest of us have to pick up the pieces.
I see no other rational course. Even with first-hand experience with the death and destruction of liquor.