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Alcohol is a peculiar problem. As I mentioned, most people can handle it most of the time, which makes it different from hard drugs. Second, it was already "destigmatized", and embedded in our culture, at the time that Prohibition passed, which was a guarantee of massive violation. Third, alcohol is very easy to make at home, in one or another version, unlike heroin or cocaine, which must come to us from exotic climes. In fact, family legend has it that my Bubba Nessa, one of my great- grandmothers, a sweet Jewish lady from Latvia, made bath-tub gin for sale to make ends meet after she was widowed. Anyway, these three factors alone make our experience with the prohibition of alcohol a dubious model for drug policy.... |
