For more than a century Americans argued fiercely over what to do about the age-old problem of drunkenness. That battle would eventually lead to an amendment to the constitution of the United States – Prohibition. Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, Prohibition I: A Nation of Drunkards, PBS 2011
For most of the nation’s history alcohol was at least as American as apple pie. ibid.
Americans spent more money on alcohol each year than the total expenditures of the federal government. ibid.
Women and children became victims. ibid.
They called their movement Temperance. ibid.
Millions of Americans had now come to support Prohibition. ibid.
The Amendment passed the House easily. ibid.
The Devil would turn out to be in the details. ibid.
Most distillers shut down, forced to padlock their vast warehouses filled with barrels of whisky. Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, Prohibition II: Scofflaws
Other Americans defied Prohibition from the first. ibid.
Drinking alcohol was not itself illegal. Nor was making wine at home for one’s own consumption. ibid.
Satan’s Seat: New York represented Prohibition’s biggest challenge. The ultimate battleground between Wets and Drys. ibid.
Agents also demanded bribes from bootleggers. ibid.
300 Are Paralyzed By Bootleg Ginger: Victims May Lose Use of Feet of Hands for Months, Doctor says. ibid. newspaper article
Prohibition was not working, but it was having a powerful and unintended impact on the lives of individual Americans all across the country. Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, Prohibition III: Murder & Mayhem
[George] Remus was to bootlegging what Rockefeller was to oil. ibid.
Capone had become the chief enforcer for the boss of Chicago vice – Johnny Torrio. ibid.
The 18th Amendment, La Guardia said, was a disaster. Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, Prohibition IV: A Sea of Rum
Women found themselves going places they had never been to before. ibid.
No-one knows precisely how many speakeasies operated in New York City. One police commissioner estimated there were at least 32,000. ibid.
23-year-old Lois Long ... was assigned to cover the city’s nightlife. Her pen-name was lipstick. ibid.
The Chicago beer wars had begun. ibid.
Al Capone held press conferences. ibid.
Capone became one of the best known Americans on Earth. ibid.
As Capone diversified he nonetheless cautioned everyone against investing in the booming stock market. It’s a racket, he said. ibid.
During the 15 years of prohibition, there are over 500 prohibition-related killings in Chicago. Natural Born Outlaws, caption, Discovery 2016
Every war has its casualties. The images of those who’ve suffered in the war against drugs have become as familiar as old pictures of the trenches from the First World War … In the war against drugs we lost touch with the truth a long time ago. Dispatches: Drugs: The Phony War, Channel 4 2001
Last year Britain spent £1.7 billion in the war against drugs. ibid.
This global campaign of prohibition is the most dishonest and destructive social policy of our time. ibid.
The strange and generally untold truth is that properly prescribed opiates like heroin are very safe drugs. The politicians have got it wrong. ibid.
Prohibition creates the very dangers it pretends to be removing. ibid.
We could call a halt to the whole war. ibid.
Not victims of drugs but victims of the war against drugs. ibid.
Social exclusion, crime, disease, death. ibid.