Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
From: [j n dmy] at [cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu] (James DiGriz)
Subject: Alcohol Prohibition (A bit longish) (was Re: Legalize drugs today!)
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 21:20:54 GMT

(exerpt from The Encyclopedia Americana (1994 edition, I think; I
don't want to go back to the library to find out) on "Prohibition"):

	"When Prohibition began, many people believed the public would soon
accept it.  Who would risk a $1,000 fine or six-month jail term just
for a drink?  But an ominous incident soon occurred in Chicago.  Six
masked men invaded a railway yard and took $100,000 worth of liquor
from two boxcars.  It was a professional robbery.  Chicago's gangsters
could already see in Prohibition a promissing business opportunity.
Because of the Prohibition issue, liquor was on everybody's mind.
People were curious, and drinking was more attractive now that it was
illegal.  Saloons quickly reopened as speakeasies, supplied with
liquor by underworld dealers and protected from arrest by corrupt
police and public officials.  Bootlegging became a vast enterprise
controlled by murderous gangsters, who divided territories among
themselves, settled their differences with guns, and bribed public
officials by the bunch.  Their confederation has since grown into what
is now known as the Mafia.
	"By the late 1920's, the country had more speakeasies than it ever had
saloons, and though much bootleg liquor was of low quality, even
dangerous to health, millions of people were drinking it.  Women who
would never have considered entering a saloon were now gleefully
sitting at bars, 'making whoopie.'"

(...and farther along in the same article...)

	"Prohibition gave rise to many colorful personalities on both sides.
Chicago's famous gangsters include Al Capone and Johnnie Torrio, who
created the model for gangland organization.  Just as prominent was
Chicago's Mayor William Hale Thompson, who received campaign
contributions from some city hoodlums, including Capone and his rival
George "Bugs" Moran."

(...and farther still...)

	"Prohibition ended in 1933 because the nation's most influential
people, as well as the general public, acknowledged that it had
failed.  It " (...and pay attention here; this is the really important
bit [JD]...) "had increased lawlessness and drinking and aggravated
alcohol abuse.  When Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st
Amendment on December 5, 1933, liquor became legal again.
	"But some of the unfortunate results of Prohibition are still with us.
The affiliation between corrupt officialdom and organized crime, which
was systemized in the 1920's, is evident today.  And so is some of the
disrespect for law that became widespread among the American people
during the Prohibition era."

Man, that sounds like what's going on today with the War On Some
Drugs, doesn't it...?

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X          James DiGriz           X
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X [j n dmy] at [cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu] X
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