Archives for 8.7.09

pre-prohibition like current drug war?

An assertion was made on a post at SI, in a thread entitled “Some thoughts on beverage alcohol” that I think is just not true:

From what I have observed over the years, the liquor industry and culture Sunday, Jones, et al. faced bares little resemblance to the same industry we face today. If we were to look for a modern parallel, the modern equivalent might be the hard drug market. It was in this milieu the evangelists of old thundered forth against liquor for close to a hundred years and continued on after the repeal of Prohibition.

The first sentence is true enough as far as it goes. Things are different now. But that’s where the accuracy of the statement ends.

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