'NOBLE EXPERIMENT' ULTIMATELY A FAILURE

There are plenty of historic dates we commemorate in the United
States. One anniversary, however, passed with little note. Friday was
the 70th anniversary of the end of alcohol Prohibition, which came
with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933.

In a story in the Valley Morning Star, a 97-year-old San Benito
resident summed up Prohibition's success in the Rio Grande Valley with
six words: "It didn't stop people from drinking."

This "noble experiment," as its proponents called it, began with the
ratification of the 18th Amendment on Jan. 16, 1919. After the
Volstead Act passed, it was illegal to make, sale or transport
"intoxicating liquors" anywhere in the United States.

Not that this law stopped anyone who really wanted a drink. If they
didn't want to flout the law here, they just had to slip across the
border to where liquor wasn't banned. Despite the fact that alcohol
was illegal, Valley residents made their own beer or drank booze
smuggled here from Mexico.

And it wasn't just South Texas. All over the United States, citizens
thumbed their noses at a law attempting to regulate their personal
behavior. The lofty goal of saving helpless Americans from the demon
rum ran headfirst into the reality that it's impossible to protect
people from themselves. People who liked beer, wine or liquor refused
to give up something that gave them pleasure, even though other people
considered it a vice. Sure, some people were abusing alcohol, but the
cure was worse than the disease.

"Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition,
it subsequently increased," according to a 1991 analysis by the
libertarian Cato Institute (www.cato.org). "Alcohol became more
dangerous to consume; crime increased and became 'organized'; the
court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and
corruption of public officials was rampant."

Sound familiar?

The United States reversed its stance on banning alcohol after
citizens saw what a disaster Prohibition had become. Unfortunately,
our elected leaders haven't learned from history.

Just like alcohol prohibition led to the rise of organized crime in
the 1920s, today's ban on certain narcotics has done nothing more than
increase drug cartels' profits. When a substance is kept artificially
expensive, someone will move to fill that market.

Seven decades ago, the citizens of the United States realized they had
made a mistake - and they fixed it. Today, there are plenty of
Americans from all walks of life - including police officers, judges
and politicians - who realize that our current drug prohibition is
doing nothing but increase profits for the drug suppliers, soak up tax
money to pay for prisons and law enforcement and erode our civil
liberties as we endure traffic stops, personal searches and other
indignities.

However, many politicians are still too scared of being called "soft
on crime" to come to their senses and realize our national drug policy
needs to change. Let's hope that historic date comes sometime soon.