America still has an active Prohibition Party

by philg

“Drunk with Power” is a New Yorker review of The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State, described by an Amazon reviewer as a “dreadfully dull and pedantic tome”. Perhaps this is a situation where it is better to read the review than the book!

There is some interesting material in here. The U.S. has a Prohibition Party, founded roughly 150 years ago, that still holds meetings:

Some of the old warriors kept the faith. (The Prohibition Party never disbanded, and held its most recent convention in July, by conference call; Gerrit Smith doubtless would have been more impressed by the technology than by the turnout, which was eleven.)

Alcohol is still a problem:

There are about thirty thousand gun-related deaths per year in America—and about ninety thousand alcohol-related deaths.

Though perhaps consumption was more than in the old days:

By one estimate, in 1810 the average American consumed the equivalent of seven gallons of pure alcohol, three times the current level.

What do readers think? Given enough immigrants from societies where alcohol is not consumed, combined with a decreased tolerance for anything that is upsetting, violent, or risky, could the U.S. return to Prohibition, at least on a state-by-state basis?

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5 thoughts on “America still has an active Prohibition Party”

  1. _Return_ to prohibition? I think anyone in prison for having the wrong kind of dried plant matter on their person would tell you that prohibition never went anywhere.

  2. could the U.S. return to Prohibition, at least on a state-by-state basis?

    Certainly not in NH and sixteen other states.

    Alcoholic beverage control states, generally called control states, are seventeen states in the United States as of 2016, that have state monopoly over the wholesaling or retailing of some or all categories of alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, and distilled spirits. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_state

  3. The New Yorker review.

    Moral philosophers look at alcohol: Why do people behave badly when drunk?

    Why are people more likely to act immorally when drunk? Alcohol is perhaps the single greatest source of antisocial behavior in our society. In the case of violent crime, we have statistics that attest to the scope of phenomenon: according to one widely cited survey in the USA, alcohol consumption was involved in 28–86% of homicides, 24–37% of assaults, 13–60% of sexual offenses, 6–57% of marital violence, 13% of child abuse, and 32–54% of child molestation (Pernanen 1991; Roizen 1997; see also Greenfeld 1998). Furthermore, controlled experiments have demonstrated a causal relationship between alcohol consumption and interpersonal aggression (Exum 2006). With respect to actions that are merely immoral, not illegal, hard data are difficult to come by, but everyday experience suggests that alcohol is likely to be involved quite often as well. (One need only think of adultery, where not only are people more likely to commit such acts while drunk, but many in fact get drunk in order to facilitate the performance of such acts.) Furthermore, such effects are not associated with all psychoactive or “impairing” substances. It has often been observed, for instance, that there is no clear association between cannabis use and violent or antisocial behavior (Bushman and Cooper 1990, 348; MacDonald et al. 2008). This suggests that we may be able to learn something about morality – about moral motivation in particular – by studying the neurological effects of alcohol intoxication.

    Despite this, I’d be amazed if Prohibition were to make a comeback. (I’m kind of amazed that the Prohibition Party still exists at all.)

  4. I was going to say, “That seems as likely as a return to popularity of communism.” But then I realized it’s the CURRENT YEAR and we have a self-proclaimed socialist running for office in America.

  5. I don’t know where the numbers you cite come from and if they make allowances for it, but, anecdotally, at least, a significant proportion of gun incidents are also drug/alcohol incidents. (Assaults in general, really)

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