The slow death of prohibition (of alcohol in USA)

[edgarshade]

BBC News

21 March 2012 Last updated at 13:55
By Brian Wheeler BBC News, Washington

In some parts of the United States prohibition never ended - but how much longer can the remaining "dry" counties stay alcohol-free? It was known as the noble experiment. A law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages had been the dream of temperance campaigners in the United States since the early 19th Century.

But dry campaigners argue that the whole area is in need of jobs and investment and more freely available booze is not the answer. "If it takes a town of drunks and people that drink to be prosperous, we are going in the wrong direction," said Williamsburg schoolteacher Matthew Ratliffe. "We want to be prosperous, certainly, but we don't think alcohol is the way to do that."

One thing both sides can agree on is that the real problem facing south-east Kentucky is not drinking but drugs. Methamphetamine and prescription pills like Oxycontin, dubbed "hillbilly heroin", have taken over from bootlegging and the distillation of moonshine as the main source of profit for local criminals. Bootleggers once "ran wild" in the area, according to Paul Croley, but with the growing availability of legal alcohol in wet towns, any profit to made from smuggling booze across county lines has largely evaporated.

More...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17291978

 

[lazylazyjoe]

You can still make quite a buck smuggling alcohol to dry counties in alaska since they're only accessable by air or sea.