Okay, I have been on a 21st Amendment stream today and this is clearly NOT an 18thg Century topic but it is germane to the Regimental Brewmeister because after the MAGA folks have outlawed abortion and reading, their next targets will be marijuana and alcohol.  So, toughen up your self-publishing, weed growing, and brewing skills now while you can.

Now I say they will prohibit these things but you must understand that this is not something they will do to themselves.  No, Trump will continue to be a womanizing monster and GOP officials will never give up their drugs and alcohol (some like Greene probably can’t read so book bans don’t affect them).  These prohibitions, like the Volstead Act of 1919 aren’t for them.  If you have political connections and money, even if its stolen money, you have options.  For example, if you wanted a drink in 1920, all you needed was a good pharmacy and a doctor’s script or a passport (travel not required).

In 1919, the United States ratified the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which barred alcohol and empowered Congress to create legislation to enforce that edict. In 1920, the Volstead Act, promulgated in 1920, did exactly that. But the Volstead Act had some exceptions:  “No one shall manufacture, sell, purchase, transport, or prescribe any liquor without first obtaining a permit from the commissioner so to do, except that a person may, without a permit, purchase and use liquor for medicinal purposes when prescribed by a physician as herein provided.”

Basically, if you have your own personal physician, they can write you a script for a whiskey sour – for medicinal purposes.  They you take your script down to the local Walgreens and you could get yourself some medicinal whiskey. That is why we all grew up with soda jerks at our pharmacies.  Yes, they sold milkshakes and lime rickeys but they also dispensed cocktails to those who had the right contacts. 

Another loophole for the elite was to just be conveniently outside the country. Herbert Hoover, then the U.S. Secretary of Commerce would stop by the Belgian Embassy on his way to and from the office.  Foreign embassies, while within the borders of the United States, are considered to be part of the countries which they represent.  So, prohibition does not apply if you are friends with the ambassador. 

Of course, while we are talking about the abuses of the 20th Amendment, we should also point out that while the elite enjoyed work-arounds to the law, they didn’t want others to make their own.  Since the sale, manufacture, or transportation of alcohol was unlawful, the US government also engaged in poisoning alcohol produced for industrial needs. 

We all know about the lucrative business of bootlegging.  Al Capone made a good business out of smuggling and illegally manufacturing liquor and while you can easily make ethanol from malt and corn mash, it’s easier and cheaper to distill legally produced grain alcohol (ethyl alcohol) solvents.  To combat this, the US Treasury ordered that all industrial alcohol be mixed with eutectic (solutions suppress boiling points) solvents like methanol, making this alcohol undrinkable. Since the bootleggers were unable to make this alcohol safe for drinking, the practice of denaturing claimed the lives of at least 10,000 people during the thirteen years prohibition was enforced.

Loopholes for the elite, poison and prison for the masses.  They did it with tea, sugar, and gunpowder. They did it with alcohol.  They did it with marijuana.  Now they are doing it with abortion and the free press.  How many people have to die before we look back on the current wave of prohibitions and say “God that was dumb!”

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller

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Published by Michael Carver

My goal is to bring history alive through interactive portrayal of ordinary American life in the late 18th Century (1750—1799) My persona are: Journeyman Brewer; Cordwainer (leather tradesman but not cobbler), Statesman and Orator; Chandler (candle and soap maker); Gentleman Scientist; and, Soldier in either the British Regular Army, the Centennial Army, or one of the various Militia. Let me help you experience history 1st hand!