"Outlawing liquor worked, didn't it?

Good example, Clint. It did decrease the use of it, didn't it?"

I don't really know. I haven't seen any statistics, and I don't know how you'd get reliable ones. There was a lot of homebrew around, and those people, like my grandfather, may not have gotten into the statistics. I don't know how you'd get figures on speakeasy/bootlegger sales.

I do know that it was a great boon to Al Capone and the boys. It was difficult to get a conviction for bootlegging. Jurys didn't like to convict, and lots of cops and judges were bought. Institutionalized corruption, almost.

I once looked through the arrest records in my hometown, and a lot of people who were community leaders at that time had convictions for liquor violations. This was in the '50's.

I would imagine that it cut down on drinking by some casual drinkers, but not by alcoholics. But it also made drinking seem daring and glamorous, so no doubt some drank beause it was cool, like I did in my teens. Cary Grant and William Powell drank dashingly, right after repeal at least. I haven't checked dates to see if any of them were speakeasy scenes.

When I was a kid Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club was a symbol of sophisticated cool, and it had been a symbol of cool when it was a speakeasy and Billingsley was a bootleger, too.

Then there were people drinking wood alcohol after filtering it through a loaf of bread in the belief that it would "purify" it. And that sort of thing.

50 years ago it was illegal for the Indians -- Native Americans -- to drink and I don't think it cut down their consumption here, and it increased the drinking of wood alcohol and such. Of course that's "anecdotal, " like a lot of this post.

The analogy with drugs at present and homosexuality in the recent past is really better, but people are more emotional about drugs and homosexuality than alcohol. Like guns. Lots of people want things prohibited because it's "right," whether it stops them or not. Especially legislators, who like to pass laws to indicate disapproval, whether or not they work.

clint