The 18th amendment to the US constitution which prohibited alcoholic beverages was largely the work of one man: Wayne B. Wheeler.
Wheeler was the hardest-working lawyer and political organizer the Anti-Saloon League had ever seen. Read about how he manipulated the politics of so many cities and states that the federal government was no match for him. Link
How does one begin to describe the impact of Wayne Bidwell Wheeler? You could do worse than to begin at the end, with the obituaries that followed his death, at 57, in 1927—obituaries, in the case of those quoted here, from newspapers that by and large disagreed with everything he stood for. The New York Herald Tribune: “Without Wayne B. Wheeler’s generalship it is more than likely we should never have had the Eighteenth Amendment.” The Milwaukee Journal: “Wayne Wheeler’s conquest is the most notable thing of our times.” The Baltimore Evening Sun had it absolutely right and at the same time completely wrong: “Nothing is more certain than that when the next history of this age is examined by dispassionate men, Wheeler will be considered one of its most extraordinary figures.” No one remembers, but he was.
Wheeler was the hardest-working lawyer and political organizer the Anti-Saloon League had ever seen. Read about how he manipulated the politics of so many cities and states that the federal government was no match for him. Link
So imagine what it was like a century ago, before this modern awareness, before treatments and support groups. Imagine the devastation alcohol was causing then... murder, accidents, child abuse, suicides, fires, and more.
Suddenly an outright ban sounds like a reasonable response.
"Smart man, especially considering since he's from Ohio." - Say that in Ohio and see what happens.
How about this: alcohol has been consumed by the public for a LONG time... thousands of years. There has been no breakdown of society in that time because of alcohol. Alcohol doesn't make people bad; it just makes them uninhibited. So, the problem isn't this drink, it's the people who are drinking it.
I'll continue drinking my alcohol until people like the above posters convince the politicians that I'm somehow harming myself and others. At that point we will have another prohibition, and we'll be repeating history.
Prohibition created an environment conducive to creating and supporting organized crime. Law abiding citizens became criminals (and made professional criminals wealthy)because they wanted a beer or a martini. There were probably as many people killed in alchohol related incidents AFTER Prohibition as before it.
But then, you'd also have to add in the gangland murders caused by criminal syndicates fighting each other for control of illegal liquor distribution. Prohibition also caused a sharp rise in homemade liquor. Much of it, highly toxic containing methanol.
It also closed hundreds of small local breweries out of business. When prohibition was repealed, the few remaining breweries gained control of a nationwide market.
If you live in a state such as Washington or Utah, you have to buy liquor in a State owned and operated store paying state-set prices.
We are seeing something similar in the drug cartel wars in Mexico and Central America. There is big money to be made smuggling illegal goods into the United States.
And the illegal pot growers in California are opposing legalization, because it will drive the prices down and run the growers of California's largest cash crop out of business.
Nothing is ever perfect anywhere but I wouldn't want bigotry interfering with my freedom. Which seems to be a growing concern down in the US.
When the world wakes up and starts punishing people for their actions rather than accusing the chemicals they imbibe, we will be in a much better place. I get that people have problems, but it's a people problem, not a drug problem.