PROHIBITION WON'T CURE ADDICTION SO TRY SOMETHING ELSE

Dr Michael Dawson says that no-one denies that there were fewer
alcoholics during alcohol prohibition (Letters, March 14). That
statement is incorrect.

Study of the alcohol consumption records of the US around that time
shows that alcohol consumption dropped from about 1914 to about 1922.

Alcohol prohibition went into effect in 1920. From 1922 to the end of
prohibition, alcohol consumption, and the problems related to it,
rose dramatically. By 1926, arrests for public intoxication and
related offences had climbed to levels about 60 per cent higher than
the pre-prohibition records.

In addition, prohibition spawned a huge drinking epidemic among
children as it was much easier to obtain.

Prohibition was passed with a campaign of "Save the Children from
Alcohol" and it was repealed with a campaign of "Save the Children
from Prohibition".

Clifford A. Schaffer, DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy,
California, US, March 15.