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Prohibition
Author: TriSec
Date: 09/24/2011 13:26:12
Good Morning.
On October 28,1919 Congress overrode President Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act, and the banning of 'intoxcating beverages" became law in the United States. What was once the legal business of thousands of people suddenly became against the law overnight.
It's a strange juxtaposition of events, as the United States was flush with victory after WWI, and returning soldiers and the country in general were looking forward to getting back to normalcy, with everything that entails.
Unfortunately, that was not to be, as in the wake of the war, the little known Depression of 1920-21 took place. It's not known if the loss of thousands of legitimate jobs in the beer, wine, and distribution industries right at the time returning soldiers would have filled those jobs had anything to do with contributing to the depression, but it doesn't take much of a leap to suppose that it did.
During the bulk of the 20s, a curious thing happened....the Temperance movement lost steam. Apparently, the victory of prohibition took the wind out of their sails; there was now nothing more to fight for. Perhaps the antics of Al Capone and countless hundreds of others wore on them as well.
In 1925, journalist H.L. Mencken observed:
By the presidential elections of 1932, deep in the Depression, support for prohibition had waned enough that the Democrats added repeal as a platform plank. That fall, Governor Roosevelt (D-NY) beat President Hoover (R-Incumbent), and the rest is history. (A curious footnote...The state that made the two-thirds majority was Utah!)
Ah, but why the admittedly abbreviated history lesson?
Drugs. One drug in particular. OK, it's marijuana.
It's not that much of a stretch to see a parallel in the prohibition of alcohol and the prohibition of marijuana. The intoxicating effects of both have been well-documented, and the blog is not going to be about that today. Nor am I here to argue for or against the medicinal benefits of said drug.
It's about the jobs and tax revenue today.
I myself have a family connection to the industry. My forebears in the Philippines had vast farms of hemp; our biggest customer was Uncle Sam, who used it to make rope for the US Navy. Indeed, after the fall of the Philippines in 1942, a vast effort was organized in the US to get farmers to grow hemp, and the domestic rope industry thrived until the last crops were planted in 1957.
In my brief research today, I've been unable to find the single, specific law that outlawed this useful plant. Evidently, it evolved over time, the stereotypical "death by a thousand cuts".
But like I said earlier....it's all about the jobs. From a pro-repeal website, here is just a brief synopsis on why the plant is useful. It doesn't take much of a stretch to think of the industries that could benefit.
We're long past the point of common sense here....don't you think it's time for a new national amendment? Entirely new industries (and the corresponding jobs, tax revenue, and who knows what else) could be waiting in the wings. And even though I said I wouldn't go there, just think that the alcohol industry results in the deaths of some 13,000 annually in driving accidents, while the also-legal tobacco industry kills more than more than 400,000 in the US.
By way of contrast, more people die from Viagra than from marijuana.
On October 28,1919 Congress overrode President Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act, and the banning of 'intoxcating beverages" became law in the United States. What was once the legal business of thousands of people suddenly became against the law overnight.
It's a strange juxtaposition of events, as the United States was flush with victory after WWI, and returning soldiers and the country in general were looking forward to getting back to normalcy, with everything that entails.
Unfortunately, that was not to be, as in the wake of the war, the little known Depression of 1920-21 took place. It's not known if the loss of thousands of legitimate jobs in the beer, wine, and distribution industries right at the time returning soldiers would have filled those jobs had anything to do with contributing to the depression, but it doesn't take much of a leap to suppose that it did.
During the bulk of the 20s, a curious thing happened....the Temperance movement lost steam. Apparently, the victory of prohibition took the wind out of their sails; there was now nothing more to fight for. Perhaps the antics of Al Capone and countless hundreds of others wore on them as well.
In 1925, journalist H.L. Mencken observed:
Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished.
By the presidential elections of 1932, deep in the Depression, support for prohibition had waned enough that the Democrats added repeal as a platform plank. That fall, Governor Roosevelt (D-NY) beat President Hoover (R-Incumbent), and the rest is history. (A curious footnote...The state that made the two-thirds majority was Utah!)
Ah, but why the admittedly abbreviated history lesson?
Drugs. One drug in particular. OK, it's marijuana.
It's not that much of a stretch to see a parallel in the prohibition of alcohol and the prohibition of marijuana. The intoxicating effects of both have been well-documented, and the blog is not going to be about that today. Nor am I here to argue for or against the medicinal benefits of said drug.
It's about the jobs and tax revenue today.
I myself have a family connection to the industry. My forebears in the Philippines had vast farms of hemp; our biggest customer was Uncle Sam, who used it to make rope for the US Navy. Indeed, after the fall of the Philippines in 1942, a vast effort was organized in the US to get farmers to grow hemp, and the domestic rope industry thrived until the last crops were planted in 1957.
In my brief research today, I've been unable to find the single, specific law that outlawed this useful plant. Evidently, it evolved over time, the stereotypical "death by a thousand cuts".
But like I said earlier....it's all about the jobs. From a pro-repeal website, here is just a brief synopsis on why the plant is useful. It doesn't take much of a stretch to think of the industries that could benefit.
The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600′s, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900′s.
America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other “must grow” laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp — try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements – rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth.
We're long past the point of common sense here....don't you think it's time for a new national amendment? Entirely new industries (and the corresponding jobs, tax revenue, and who knows what else) could be waiting in the wings. And even though I said I wouldn't go there, just think that the alcohol industry results in the deaths of some 13,000 annually in driving accidents, while the also-legal tobacco industry kills more than more than 400,000 in the US.
By way of contrast, more people die from Viagra than from marijuana.
