Prohibition

Part 1: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition The Political Angle Prohibition, the nationwide ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, was an ambitious social experiment rooted in moral and political motivations. …

If you are unfamiliar with Pennsylvania’s weird laws when it comes to alcohol you may be surprised when you visit the commonwealth. After prohibition ended in 1933 the Governor Gifford Pinchot held a special session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to ensure that the sales of any alcohol was expensive…

A love poem for the war on drugs. — This is a freewriting exercise I did to escape the stress of my Linguistics final, which is currently driving me insane. It’s about the war on drugs, and specifically the 1985 banning of the drug MDMA and the subsequent lawsuit that was filed by hundreds of psychotherapists who had been…

There is a huge movement that must be feeling quite elated over the notion that they are going to be able to snuff out the concept of abortion in our time. …

I invited guns, booze, and weed to my house — and the results were frightening. — The world is full of scary things, but it’s getting harder and harder to figure out what to be scared of. Fortunately, there are ways to test and evaluate these things. I recently read a letter to the editor about an experiment the author conducted, where he placed a locked-and-loaded…

I used to think that only dictators ban, or burn, books. And so they do. But, throughout history, other governments and societies have often banned books. Sometimes it is official censorship, and sometimes through pressure from religious or social norms. One of the earliest known examples occurred in ancient China…

Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia claim to be Islamic states, and while they defer from each other in many aspects, they unanimously prohibit both the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages on their territories. We may be tempted to view such radical opposition to alcohol as deeply rooted in Islamic…

Ralph J. Benart, who told the police he was a student at George Washington University Medical School, was arrested at 1227 15th street northwest last night by prohibition agents and members of the police vice squad on charges of illegal possession and sale of intoxicating liquor. Ten women and five men were reported discovered by the raiders in Benart’s home when the police seized two and one-half cases of what was described as Dawson Scotch whisky, valued at $300. The raid was conducted by Sergt. McQuade of the vice squad and Agents Fowler, Ruby and Packard of the prohibition enforcement forces. Benart was released on $2,500 bond.