Pubdate: Mon, 04 Aug 2014
Source: Columbian, The (WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Columbian Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.columbian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/92
Author: Jim Kennedy

STATS ASCERTAIN PROHIBITION FAILED

In a Los Angeles Times article appearing in The Columbian on July 29, 
"Pot: U.S. sees profound cultural shift," Stuart Gitlow, president of 
the American Society of Addiction Medicine, is quoted thusly: "When 
you look back at Prohibition, what you see is that per-capita use of 
alcohol dropped by more than 50 percent; as a result of that, 
alcohol-related deaths dropped considerably as well. Prohibition was 
an enormous public health success." This is where the adage about not 
believing everything you read fits.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, alcohol-related deaths 
increased during that period from 1 per 100,000 in 1920 to 4 per 
100,000 in 1928. Also, crime was rampant during that period as is 
indicated by this quote from Henry Hilfers, the then-president of the 
New Jersey State Federation of Labor (before the Senate, May 1926): 
"The Volstead Act has been the direct result of creating more crime 
in the state of New Jersey than there ever has been before."

Shame on Gitlow for perpetuating a falsehood. Alcohol prohibition was 
an abysmal failure. I'm rather bemused it appears nothing was learned 
from that catastrophe.

Jim Kennedy

Vancouver
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