Alcohol Prohibition - Should we bring it back?

[NewtonTrino]

The funny thing is that most of the people who whine about binge drinking would freak out over the idea of legalism pot. Which would IMHO radically reduce drinking, especially in young people.

 

[richardm]

Or the UK, where binge-drinking is on the rise

I remain unconvinced that it really is on the rise. If they're defining a binge as twice the recommended levels, well, for men that is 3 or 4 pints of beer in a session; for women even less. Two things about this: I don't think many people would regard that as an excessive Friday or Saturday night out, and I don't think they would have regarded it as excessive thirty years ago either.

If they want to argue that people are drinking too much, they really should look at what they're claiming is "too much". Adverts where three women are depicted as disgraceful drunkards because they're finishing off a bottle of wine between them don't seem to be very helpful to sorting out sensible attitudes, because I think most people would look at that and think "Pfft".

 

[Beerina]

The Problem with Prohibition is the lousy Quality of Illegal Drugs.

George Will points out that the cost of illegal drugs is coming down, and the quality is increasing. This is standard economic evidence that capitalism (competition, specifically) is winning out over prohibition, and that we are thus losing the War on Drugs.

One could argue competition to supply is increasing because people are getting off drugs, but I don't think stats would support that view.

 

[NewtonTrino]

The quality and quantity of Marijuana available on the west coast has increased radically in the last decade. I think this is mostly because of the medical pot laws which have allowed people to more openly work on improving cultivation. I have several different dealers some of which will even deliver to my house. Price also seems closely correlated to quality so it's classic capitalism delivering the goods.

Prohibition is basically a massive failure. I would have a hard time finding a bigger example of government fail actually.

 

[Praktik]

Edited, breach of Rules 5 & 10 removed.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Locknar

 

[Dr. Keith]

One of the insidious consequences of prohibition was the death of the pub society, a local bar where a community drank together. There was a sharp rise in drinking at home ofter prohibition as compared to before prohibition.

I never stopped by a bar after work on a regular basis, but I like the idea. I think we lose something when we lose such micro communities.

 

[Mirrorglass]

Hi, I'm back.

Anyway, it was mentioned before, but it's a very important fact that what's dangerous isn't alcohol, but binging (which, by the way, is the norm in places other than New Zealand, and from what I've heard, not really uncommon in UK or the States).

Not only is drinking in moderation not harmful, but it's actually beneficial. It has a clear effect of lessening the risk of cardiovascular disease and thus increasing life expectancy. It would be simply silly to ban this, since it would only lead to people having heart attacks younger, which would be costly to the society and unpleasant to the people as well.

Banning public drunkenness more explicitly would not be a bad idea, but even here I'm inclined to think it's pretty much impossible to enforce.

 

[SRW]

So you are in favor or not in favor? I'm guessing not in favor?

In favor of making criminals out of casual users of drugs? No, I am not.

 

[CORed]

Well Prof Yaffle is correct, but I was being a bit flippant. Sorry.
I did not really know that anyone thought alcohol prohibition was a good idea: though I suppose it follows they must cos some think drug prohibition is. I better shut up now

There is still a Prohibition Party in the US. They are very small, but they usually field a presidential candidate, and sometimes candidates in gubernatorial or congressional races. I don't think they ever get more than a handful of votes, though.

 

[CORed]

If there was any way to actually prohibit the usage of the stuff completely then yeah I would support banning drink, but that will never happen. So I would prefer to put significantly higher duties on booze to pay for the problems it brings to our society.

The above applies to any drug which leads to addiction / anti social behaviour.

You can only tax booze so much before you develop a black market to avoid the taxes. There are already some moonshiners in the US, so I don't know that you could raise taxes on alcohol much more without creating a significant black market, which brings with it most of the problems of prohibition.

Making alcohol just isn't that hard. All you need is yeast and a source of sugar. A still if you want the hard stuff. Making alcohol that doesn't taste like paint thinner is a little harder, but not all that hard.

 

[Praktik]

You can only tax booze so much before you develop a black market to avoid the taxes. There are already some moonshiners in the US, so I don't know that you could raise taxes on alcohol much more without creating a significant black market, which brings with it most of the problems of prohibition.

Same thing happens with tobacco taxes - here in Canada we've had much higher taxes that were rolled back a bit once smuggling spiked enormously...

 

[sadhatter]

You can only tax booze so much before you develop a black market to avoid the taxes. There are already some moonshiners in the US, so I don't know that you could raise taxes on alcohol much more without creating a significant black market, which brings with it most of the problems of prohibition.

Making alcohol just isn't that hard. All you need is yeast and a source of sugar. A still if you want the hard stuff. Making alcohol that doesn't taste like paint thinner is a little harder, but not all that hard.

You know i found out 2 years ago that there are actually still moonshiners around. I was at a party and the booze ran out, then a quick road trip later we had some nasty crap in a glass jar, we got pretty drunk though.

 

[NewtonTrino]

When I was in high school I was at a party and one of the people worked at the beer store. We paid him $20 and he used his keys to grab us a 2-4. No moonshine needed!

I'm in Boston for a few days. Was drinking Guiness and Jameson earlier. I could really use some weed, I with it was legal