MAYBE PROHIBITION JUST HAD BAD PRESS

IN A LETTER (CT, May 4) Geoff Page makes the assertion, frequently
repeated in correspondence on the drug issue, that prohibition in the
USA was a failure. The liquor industry, for obvious reasons, made this
assertion at the time and has made it regularly since. Compare its
activities with those of the purveyors of nicotine. Recent murders and
horrific traffic accidents in which alcohol was a significant factor
together with ugly scenes in Civic late at night seem to suggest that
the alternative has its problems. A recent study (New Scientist,
November 27, 1999) reported that in Detroit arrests for drunkenness
dropped by almost 90 per cent in the first year of prohibition and
there were 50 per cent fewer complaints of domestic violence against
women. It makes one wonder whether prohibition failed or just had a
bad press.

HENRY LAWRENCE,
Melba