{"id":1412,"date":"2009-08-07T22:10:12","date_gmt":"2009-08-08T06:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/08\/07\/pre-prohibition-like-current-drug-war\/"},"modified":"2009-08-07T22:10:12","modified_gmt":"2009-08-08T06:10:12","slug":"pre-prohibition-like-current-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/08\/07\/pre-prohibition-like-current-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"pre-prohibition like current drug war?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An assertion was made on a post at SI, in a thread entitled \u201cSome thoughts on beverage alcohol<\/a>\u201d that I think is just not true:<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The first sentence is true enough as far as it goes. Things are<\/em> different now. But that\u2019s where the accuracy of the statement ends.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To say the hard drug market of today is in any way a parallel with the environment of pre-prohibition temperance preaching is an amazing misunderstanding of history and an incredibly inappropriate comparison (of the proverbial \u201capples to oranges\u201d variety).<\/p>\n

For some resources, I would like to point to you two sites found on this search: \u201chistory of drug laws\u201d.<\/p>\n

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  1. History of Drug Laws<\/a> (notes provided by a psychology prof at the University of Minnesota, Morris) <\/li>\n
  2. Drug Law Timeline<\/a> (notes at the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, prepared originally for a class taken at the University of Missouri, St. Louis<\/a>) <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    An examination of these documents, as well as other resources, shows significant differences between the pre-prohibition environment and the current hard drug market.<\/p>\n