Alcohol Prohibition Was a Dress Rehearsal for the War on Drugs

"The war on alcohol and the war on drugs were symbiotic campaigns," says Harvard historian Lisa McGirr, author of The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State. "Those two campaigns emerged together, [and] they had the same shared...logic. Many of the same individuals were involved in both campaigns."
Did alcohol prohibition of the 1920s ever really come to an end, or did it just metastasize into something far more destructive and difficult to abolish-what we casually refer to as "the war on drugs?" McGirr argues that our national ban on booze routed around its own repeal via the 21st Amendment. Ultimately, Prohibition transformed into a worldwide campaign against the drug trade.
The ties between drug and alcohol prohibition run deep. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was established in 1930, only three years prior to Prohibition's repeal. The FBN employed many of the same officials as the Federal Bureau of Prohibition. And both shared institutional spaces as independent entities within the U.S. Treasury Department. "In some ways," observes McGirr, "the war never ended."
Runs 12:42 minutes.
Edited by Todd Krainin. Cameras by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg.
Go to reason.com/reasontv/2016/08/25... for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV's KZbin Channel to receive notifications when new material goes live.

[@nonsensepeoplenetwork]

"Chasing the scream" is the best entry book to the war on drugs. I recommend it to everyone.

[@steveweiss7191]

I'm a non-drinker non-smoker and I support drug use decriminalization because prohibition doesn't work, wastes huge amounts on enforcement, actually promotes drug usage and gives an excuse for the massive expansion of the state into human affairs. One need only look at Europe to see a much more rational approach to drug use.

[@gnarmarmilla]

Why fine people for using drugs? Decriminalizing only keeps the black market alive and prevents people from using drugs in a safe and reasonable way because most drug dealers aren’t going to give you a list of side effects, dangers, and dosage guidelines. It isn’t just to judge people who use drugs that we don’t use, based on stigma and based on the experience a a minority of people who abuse drugs. That’s like banning cars because people crash them.

[@nervclax7458]

Marijuana (and for that matter, hemp) has shown a lot of promise in treating a lot of illness. Yet, for decades, we have been denied the opportunity to research potential applications for marijuana because of an ideological war on a plant. You can feel the hand of big pharma pushing against marijuana. They want consumers to stay on prescription drugs which are also widely abused.

[@AJ6644]

That audio...Don't listen to this with headphones. However, the content is 10/10, so don't give up on it.

[@cfoneil85]

Freedom and love always overcomes fear and control. Human beings are a manifestation of love and freedom. They will never win. We will overcome.

[@nicmart]

Fine book. Strongly recommended.

[@SAMoralesTP]

she makes such long winded responses (which was also annoying about reading the book) but he's a good interviewer. But there you have it: Harvard historian agrees that the war on drugs is also bound to collapse

[@aramagoo]

I didn't realize that Al Smith was such a good guy.

[@jojothermidor]

Prohibition was started by spiteful women who wanted their husbands out of bars.

[@SAMoralesTP]

*started by women who could no longer stand abuse from their drunk husbands. and by people who wanted to industrialize but saw that alcohol abuse was negatively impacting their workers. and by protestants that wanted more religiously committed followers and tried associating acohol to sin. don't try to give feminism a bad rep lol

[@lavenderdeng6364]

@@SAMoralesTP it was a joke but yes you are correct. Although it was also another way for the rich and white to strengthen their hold over the P.O.C. and the poor.

[@CarlosGarcia-zt3mr]

It says it was started by religious institutions.

[@wrayjulian]

+ Chris Walls the problem is that people believe we use to drink 100% proof alcohol. The truth is it was illegalized because its potential use as fuel would limit the amount of control they had. Due to its free production. hemp and alcohol mixed was used in lanterns for homes. this was a very long lasting fuel. don't be fooled. it's not in the history books. is it a accident that both of these free products were illegalized at the same time?

[@5688gamble]

Can't sell oil if you can grow fuel even if you wanted to use oil you can't market a patentable and highly toxic octane booster like tetraethyl lead if you have something far more effective on the market. How would they market synthetic fibres if we had a better alternative? How would companies market newer more dangerous opioids if people could purchase cannabis and opium products? Heck the alcohol industry lobbied to ban MDMA, people in some areas were preferring it and they couldn't lose their monopoly on party drugs it is always money! Only winners are private business and criminal enterprise!

[@KevinSmith-qi5yn]

Oh McGirr

[@supersporkspank]

Huh huh huh… She said "penal".

[@mademansandro]

Russell Brand approves

[@leebrit2903]

That was a lousy attempt to ban alcohol. It's wasn't like all the State's were all agreeing on the same thing's. Could of at least banned the use of recreational drugs and the use of firearms first and find a better way to stop money laundering in every State before the government banned alcohol.

[@m.muraskiewicz688]

WASHINGTON DC Please stay OUT of people’s PRIVATE LIVES and their struggles. It is ABSOLUTELY NONE of your business IN ANY WAY.

[@mudchair16]

Wrong. I bet she's a jew.