Post #771720 by AceExplorer on Wed, Jan 4, 2017 8:17 AM

On 2017-01-04 08:00, Haole Jim wrote:
How Prohibition ever got passed as a Constitutional Amendment is still a bit of a mystery in this mind.

That is an interesting point considering how near-and-dear alcoholic beverages were to all Americans throughout history leading up to Prohibition and beyond.

In the book, "Poisoner's Handbook," the author details how Prohibition lead to tremendous advances in criminal forensics due to all the poisonings from bad liquor. Police investigators had to develop methods by which they could detect more accurately how people died. Was it bad liquor, or was it poisoning by arsenic, cyanide, etc.?

Another book I have at home (can't remember the title now) details how much beer and liquor was woven into daily American life since before the first European settlers arrived on North American shores -- beer was partial payment to sailors, and when voyages ran too long and beer ran out, there was unrest.