Hundreds of years ago, Sweden had a college of physicians, whose dictates had the force of law. At one point, they decided that coffee was “bad for you”, so they instituted a complete prohibition of coffee, outlawing its importation, provision, sale *and* consumption.
About all that remains of their “noble experiment” is an oil painting, depicting something best described as a “coffee bust”. Police bursting into a room where several people had been drinking coffee, struggling with the men there, while a young woman valiantly tried to drink a couple gallons of evidence. (Unfortunately I cannot find an online picture of this painting.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_III_of_Sweden%27s_coffee_experiment
Bad ideas never die, do they?