NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PROHIBITION

Prohibition And The Drug War, Chapter Two.

So much can be said, when comparing our nation's unsuccessful efforts at
using laws to prevent people from consuming certain substances, it is
appropriate to welcome Cliff Schaffer into our ongoing debate and discussion
of criminal justice issues.

Schaffer, who lives in California, said it was back in the 1970s when he
first became interested in issues related to drug enforcement and began to
research the subject. After reading a variety of reports, studies, articles
and books produced by government bodies, the scientific community,
organizations and individuals, he reached a conclusion about the drug war:

"I thought at that time the evidence was clear and it would be over
shortly," he said.

It wasn't. In fact, it continued to grow ever larger. And then, in 1989,
when he witnessed a lengthy debate on the drug war that ended without
reaching any clear-cut conclusion, he realized more people needed access to
the information he had studied.

A computer programmer, Schaffer quickly saw the Internet as the key to
making the information readily and widely available. So in 1993 he started
scanning and typing and adding to his collection of major studies until,
today, he estimates his online Schaffer Library of Drug Policy contains the
equivalent of 800 to 1,000 books.

Putting evidence on the table And it's still growing. Information is sent to
him from over the world by those who visit his Web site
(http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/). Schaffer said the site gets
about 5 million hits a year and his goal is, simply, "to put all the
evidence on the table and let the chips fall where they may."

His unusual hobby costs him about $300 a month to maintain the site, and he
spends many hours a week updating it with newly acquired information and
links to related sites.

He suggested several sources in his library as useful in the Prohibition
discussion that began in this space Wednesday, when Don Williams of Pearland
expressed the opinion that Prohibition was not as big a failure as it is
made out to be. Williams said he believes that "during Prohibition alcohol
consumption was actually quite uncommon."

With enough room here to sample from just one source, Schaffer suggested the
chapter on the history of alcohol prohibition from "Marihuana, A Signal of
Misunderstanding," the report of the U.S. National Commission on Marihuana
and Drug Abuse.

"That's the largest study of drug policy ever done by the U.S. government,"
he said, "so it is a bit hard for people to argue too much with it."

Here, from that chapter, is a nugget that indicates alcohol consumption was,
indeed, quite common: "The law could not quell the continuing demand for
alcoholic products. Thus, where legal enterprises could no longer supply the
demand, an illicit traffic developed, from the point of manufacture to
consumption. The institution of the speakeasy replaced the institution of
the saloon. Estimates of the number of speakeasies throughout the United
States ranged from 200,000 to 500,000."

Some not-so-dry facts And how about this: "Drinking at an earlier age was
also noted, particularly during the first few years of Prohibition. The
superintendents of eight state mental hospitals reported a larger percentage
of young patients during Prohibition (1919-1926) than formerly. One of the
hospitals noted: `During the past year (1926), an unusually large group of
patients who are of high school age were admitted for alcoholic psychosis.'
"

And: "By midsummer of 1920, federal courts in Chicago were overwhelmed with
some 600 pending liquor violation trials. Within three years, 30 prohibition
agents were killed in service."

Since no records of actual per capita consumption could be kept during
Prohibition, we have only estimates, which vary. But consider figures from
the Department of Commerce in the Statistical Abstract of the United States:
"The average annual per capita consumption of hard liquor from 1910-1914,
inclusive, was 1.46 proof gallons. The per capita rate for the Prohibition
years is computed to be 1.63 proof gallons. This is 11.64 percent higher
than the Pre-Prohibition rate."

For more information (a whole lot more) on Prohibition or drug policy, visit
Schaffer's online library.