| By :
Mark Etinger
Although alcohol is legal today, it was not during Prohibition. That didn't do all that much to stop people from drinking but it was worth a shot. Let's take a look at how Prohibition changed the way Americans consumed alcohol and how it resonates in today's debate about drugs, alcohol and social behaviors. Prohibition is typically regarded as a massive failure. This is a bit of an overstatement. Cirrhosis of the liver, alcohol related domestic violence and drunk driving all plummeted by about 50%. People who choose to follow the law benefit from it. The problem was people who chose to break the law. Doctors were allowed to write prescriptions for scotch whiskey. Many realized they could make a lot of money by selling these medicinal scotch whiskey prescriptions. The situation is not unlike unscrupulous doctors today who prescribe controlled substances to make money. People could also get single malt scotch and other alcohol at speakeasies. These illegal bars were the first instance of men and women drinking together in public. It was a big step in female empowerment and sexual independence, but it also had its downside. Because the production of single malt whiskey went underground, the quality of the products suffered. Often, bootleggers would add dangerous chemicals to their whiskey in an attempt to make it stronger. Thousands of people died, went blind, or were permanently injured as a result of bad scotch whiskey. People claim the same is true for illegal drugs today. Often times it is not the drug itself that kills users but the impurities or chemicals use to "cut" the drug. Proponents of legalizing drugs claim if the drugs were legal, users would not die from bad batches of the drugs. Almost no one dies of tainted scotch whiskey brands today, but people die from bad drugs on a daily basis. Opponents of drug legalization point to the negative effects alcohol has on our society today. Alcohol is far and away the most costly and destructive drug to society. The cost of alcohol related crime, illness, social breakdown and lost productivity is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars. The taxes paid by alcohol companies are a drop in the bucket compared to cost of the damages they create. It also raises the question of how much is a human life worth? The alcohol lobby is powerful and keeps the prices of alcohol down. $20 will get you enough cheap single malt scotch whiskey to stay drunk, very drunk, all day. That means all you need to be an alcoholic is roughly $20 a day. $20 worth of illegal drugs is not enough to support a habit. This alarms many social scientists.
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