The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate

Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure

Regular readers know that I've been participating in an ongoing discussion about the War on Drugs over at my workplace, PeoplesForum.com. I've said it hasn't been very productive, and while that's true, it does appear that a few people have moved a couple notches on the issue, and most of the participants have somewhat elevated their tone.

The discussion turns again and again to the first Prohibition, because the parallels are stark and plentiful. In searching for evidence of the rise or fall of alcoholism during Prohibition (because our discussion had shifted to whether ending the drug war would increase or decrease addiction), I came upon this superb essay from the Cato Institute. It's a pretty extensive discussion of the numbers and trends behind Prohibition, wrapped in the broader context of measuring whther Prohibition managed to achieve any of its stated goals. Everyone pretty much universally agrees that it failed in reducing crime, increasing employment, or healing society, but some dispute remains about its impact on usage and addiction.

I've got some more comments about the drug war -- I'll probably post a thousand more entries about it in due time -- and I have some stuff that I've posted at PeoplesForum.com that I'll probably bring over here, but for now, this essay is a thorough debunking of the idea of Prohibition I as a success by any measure. Almost every trend depicted in it can be seen recurring in our Prohibition II, the War on Drugs.

Policy Analysis
Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure
by Mark Thornton
(Mark Thornton is the O. P. Alford III Assistant Professor of Economics at Auburn University.)

Executive Summary:

National prohibition of alcohol (1920-33)--the "noble experiment"--was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure

Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became "organized"; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant. No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition. Those results are documented from a variety of sources, most of which, ironically, are the work of supporters of Prohibition--most economists and social scientists supported it. Their findings make the case against Prohibition that much stronger.

Full Analysis...