All Posts Tagged With: "prohibition"
The Fiasco of Prohibition
The national prohibition of alcohol, initiated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and enforced via the Volstead Act, stands as an important illustration of the limits to social engineering. Prohibition failed to eliminate alcohol, and even exacerbated many of the social ills related to its consumption, because government is limited both by its knowledge [...]
22Dec2010 | Douglas Rogers | 19 comments | ContinuedHow to End Mexico’s Deadly Drug War
Albert Einstein declared, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He wasn’t describing the federal government’s nearly century-long war on drugs but he might as well have been. Despite ample lip-service for “hope” and “change,” the Obama administration’s cynical response to the escalating drug prohibition-related [...]
18Nov2009 | Paul Armentano | 74 comments | ContinuedObama Administration Ends Medical Marijuana Crackdown
The president finally doing something right, in my humble opinion: Federal drug agents won’t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration.
19Oct2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 3 comments | ContinuedLight Bulb Hoarding
Europe’s ban on incandescent light bulbs goes into effect today. Not surprisingly, there have been reports of stockpiling of the old, eco-unfriendly light bulbs for allegedly “aesthetic” reasons. But my guess is those incandescent bulbs will be modestly profitable on Europe’s black market. Capitalism can’t be stop, only driven underground.From the New York Times: Under [...]
2Sep2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 6 comments | ContinuedWhat The Drug Warriors Have Given Us
Does anyone still think the “war on drugs” is a good idea?
That may strike some people as an odd question under the circumstances, so let’s take it from another direction. Have you seen the news stories about the violence on the border being perpetrated by the Mexican whiskey and cigarette cartels?
No? That’s probably because there was no such violence and are no such cartels.
So why are there violent cartels in marijuana, cocaine, and heroin but not in whiskey and cigarettes?
All together now: prohibition.
17Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 8 comments | ContinuedVermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World
Timothy Brook has written a fascinating work on the pivotal seventeenth century, one that defies neat categorization. It isn’t a history per se, although it is about a crucial period of history. It isn’t really about economics, but it conveys a considerable amount of economic understanding. Nor is it a work on philosophy, even though [...]
11Jun2009 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedOpening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Borders and Immigration Law
In recent years there have been numerous highly publicized federal raids against companies that had violated the law by employing illegal aliens. The hapless people were deported and the companies slapped with stiff penalties. Generally, the reaction has been, “Well, it’s about time the government got tough!” For the most part, the strident voices of [...]
22Jan2009 | George C. Leef | 3 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – 2008/5
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution by Kevin R. C. Gutzman Regnery • 2007 • 258 pages • $19.95 paperback Reviewed by J. H. Huebert Conservative commentators often tell us that if only we would get back to the Constitution as it was understood, say, 100 years ago, all would be well with our [...]
1May2008 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedAlcohol, Prohibition, and the Revenuers
The standard account of America’s experience with alcohol Prohibition centers on ideology. This account states that citizens were so infused with Progressive hubris that they set forth in 1919 on a futile quest to mandate morality by banning the manufacture and sale of liquor. But when they recognized that Prohibition was failing, Americans abandoned the [...]
1Jan2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedTrans-Fattened Government
So people dining out in New York City will be protected from unwittingly—or even wittingly—consuming foods containing trans fats. Trans fats are what you get with partially hydrogenated oils and shortenings, which keep foods like French fries from getting soggy and margarine solid at room temperature. Trans fats will be banned in the city’s restaurants [...]
1Jan2007 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedDoes Obesity Justify Big Government?
Last January media outlets reported that cancer had
overtaken heart disease as the number-one killer
in the United States. Sounds scary, no?
Freedom and Majority Rule
The publisher of the London Times came to this country a few years after World War I. A banquet in his honor was held in New York City, and at the appropriate time Lord Northcliffe rose to his feet to propose a toast. Prohibition was in effect, you will recall, and the beverage customarily drunk [...]
1Jun2005 | Edmund A. Opitz | 0 comments | ContinuedThe WHO Global Treaty on Tobacco: A Smokescreen for More Government Control
On May 10 the U.S. government signed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global treaty on tobacco control. While the treaty still has to be ratified by the Senate before it becomes the law of the land, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson declared at the signing: “President Bush and I look forward to [...]
1Jul2004 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedProhibition Hasn’t Ended Yet
It’s been nearly seven decades since the national war against alcohol during Prohibition (1920-33) came to an end with the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. But 30 states, including mine (Michigan), still prosecute a kind of mini-Prohibition of their own: They forbid consumers from buying wine from other states unless the products are shipped through [...]
1Jul2001 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedOh, What a Piece of Work Is a Man
Ted Roberts is a freelance writer in Huntsville, Alabama, who often writes on public-policy issues. Will, the manager of the new Globe Theater in London, was frustrated. Tickets were priced alluringly cheap, but he made a nice profit on ale at 2 shillings a mug. However, the customers insisted on smuggling in their own ale, [...]
1Mar2001 | Ted Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Drug War’s Assault on Liberty
Lance Lamberton is a communications professional who was the deputy director of the White House Office of Policy Information in the Reagan administration. Special thanks to Jerry Epstein of the Drug Policy Foundation of Texas for his assistance in researching this article. Copyright 2000. In determining the proper boundaries of government action consistent with a [...]
1Aug2000 | Lance Lamberton | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Tobacco Deal: Myths and Misconceptions
Robert Levy is senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and author of the Cato Policy Analysis, “Tobacco Medicaid Litigation: Snuffing Out the Rule of Law.” The deal being forced on tobacco companies, whether it is the original negotiated agreement or one amended according to President Clinton’s liking, is manifestly unconstitutional and nothing [...]
1Jan1998 | Robert A. Levy | 1 comment | Continued-
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