WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

Will history repeat itself? Is what happened before destined to occur
again? If so, can we hasten the outcome? History. That amorphous
high school course can be a great teacher, if only we heed its lessons.

Central Ohio sits in a unique position with regard to history. One
hundred years ago, it was at the epicenter of an emerging social
movement. This movement conjoined women's suffrage with Protestant
churches and the Republican Party. A mere pledge of personal
restraint grew to envelop America in its worldview and pose serious
and lasting Constitutional issues. While repeatedly repudiated as
ineffective and corrupt, it exists in the form of the present day
"War on Drugs." That movement was alcohol prohibition.

Westerville, the upscale suburb on the northeast side of Columbus,
still bills itself as the "Dry Capitol of the World." Although "wet"
voter initiatives have shrunk the actual dry area of this quiet,
peaceful village, prohibition's roots are deeply imbedded in it.
Westerville is the home of the Anti-Saloon League Museum located
adjacent to the Westerville Public Library. This historic home
became the national headquarters of the Anti-Saloon League and its
American Issue Publishing Company in 1909. It houses one of the
largest collections of prohibition-oriented literature in the world.

Consider these statistics. From 1909 to 1923, the Anti-Saloon League
produced: 157 million copies of temperance papers, 2 million books, 5
million pamphlets, 114 million leaflets, 2 million window placards,
and 18 million small cards. The flow of mail was so large that
Westerville became the smallest community in the country with a
first-class post office. At the height of the 1919 campaign to
ratify the 18th Amendment outlawing alcohol, more than 40 tons of
anti-alcohol material poured from the League's printing presses each month!

This volume of material had the familiar ring of hyperbole,
exaggeration, and emotion used by the modern day,
government-sponsored anti-drug media campaigns made famous by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy and Partnership for a Drug
Free America. The threads that weave through drug prohibition are
hauntingly similar to alcohol prohibition.

Yet, within ten years of their peak publishing volume, all was lost
for the Anti-Saloon League. Alcohol regained its legal status with
passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933. The League faded and
disbanded, its remnants now on display as a relic in a museum and library.

Can we do the same for the drug war?

A Prohibition ditty from the last century. Sound familiar?

Prohibition is an awful flop.

We like it.

It can't stop what it's meant to stop.

We like it.

It's left a trail of graft and slime,

It's filled our land with vice and crime,

It don't prohibit worth a dime,

Nevertheless we're for it.