Pubdate: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 Source: The Monitor (TX) Copyright: 2003 The Monitor Contact: http://www.themonitor.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250 Cited: Cato Institute www.cato.org 'NOBLE EXPERIMENT' ULTIMATELY A FAILURE There are plenty of historic dates we commemorate in the United States. One anniversary, however, passed with little note. Friday was the 70th anniversary of the end of alcohol Prohibition, which came with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933. In a story in the Valley Morning Star, a 97-year-old San Benito resident summed up Prohibition's success in the Rio Grande Valley with six words: "It didn't stop people from drinking." This "noble experiment," as its proponents called it, began with the ratification of the 18th Amendment on Jan. 16, 1919. After the Volstead Act passed, it was illegal to make, sale or transport "intoxicating liquors" anywhere in the United States. Not that this law stopped anyone who really wanted a drink. If they didn't want to flout the law here, they just had to slip across the border to where liquor wasn't banned. Despite the fact that alcohol was illegal, Valley residents made their own beer or drank booze smuggled here from Mexico. And it wasn't just South Texas. All over the United States, citizens thumbed their noses at a law attempting to regulate their personal behavior. The lofty goal of saving helpless Americans from the demon rum ran headfirst into the reality that it's impossible to protect people from themselves. People who liked beer, wine or liquor refused to give up something that gave them pleasure, even though other people considered it a vice. Sure, some people were abusing alcohol, but the cure was worse than the disease. "Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased," according to a 1991 analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute (www.cato.org). "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." Sound familiar? The United States reversed its stance on banning alcohol after citizens saw what a disaster Prohibition had become. Unfortunately, our elected leaders haven't learned from history. Just like alcohol prohibition led to the rise of organized crime in the 1920s, today's ban on certain narcotics has done nothing more than increase drug cartels' profits. When a substance is kept artificially expensive, someone will move to fill that market. Seven decades ago, the citizens of the United States realized they had made a mistake - and they fixed it. Today, there are plenty of Americans from all walks of life - including police officers, judges and politicians - who realize that our current drug prohibition is doing nothing but increase profits for the drug suppliers, soak up tax money to pay for prisons and law enforcement and erode our civil liberties as we endure traffic stops, personal searches and other indignities. However, many politicians are still too scared of being called "soft on crime" to come to their senses and realize our national drug policy needs to change. Let's hope that historic date comes sometime soon. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin