Thanks to Andrew Glass at Politico.com for penning the This Day In Politics column reflecting the legislative origins of America’s off-and-on temptation with prohibitions, notably today’s 171st anniversary of America’s first prohibitionist laws in Tennessee.
Of course, the parallels to today’s 71-year old marijuana prohibition are unavoidable.
Tennessee bans sale of alcohol, Jan. 26, 1838
By: Andrew Glass, Politico.com
January 26, 2009
On this day in 1838, the Tennessee Legislature passed the nation’s first Prohibition law.
The statute made it a misdemeanor for residents to sell alcoholic beverages in taverns and stores. Tennessee had been admitted to the Union in 1796 as the 16th state. Under the new law, any person convicted of selling “spirituous liquors” could be fined at the “discretion of the court.” Such fines would help fund public education.
The roots of Prohibition in North America reach back to 1657, when the General Court of Massachusetts outlawed the sale of liquor “whether known by the name of rum, strong water, wine, brandy, etc., etc.”
In the early years of the republic, some Americans formed religiously oriented temperance societies to combat what they believed were the adverse effects of strong drink. A consensus emerged in those circles that while alcohol was a gift from God, its abuse through excessive consumption remained the work of the devil.
Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, called for moderation, arguing that excessive use of alcohol damaged both physical and psychological health. Influenced by Rush’s writings, some 200 Connecticut farmers founded a temperance association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in Virginia in 1800 and New York in 1808.
By the late 19th century, “dry” groups had emerged as a powerful political force, calling for nationwide abstinence. In 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, barring the manufacture and sale of alcohol. During the 1920s, the federal government nevertheless failed to curb the widespread distribution of alcoholic beverages by crime syndicates. In 1933, the nation repealed Prohibition with the 21st Amendment, although some states and localities continued to enforce a ban for many years to come.
Source: “Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933,” by Thomas Pegram (1998).
D E A Go Away…
& Legalize Marijuana Today…
The real problem is socialism in government. Prohibition of weed is just one of thousands of socialist laws that are destroying our freedom. Many who visit this site would probably like to see guns band, both are socialist ideas. Those who would see guns ban think if only we the enlitented ones could remove the tools of vilolens the world would live in peace. Simerly those who would ban drugs think if only we the saved can take away the tools of vice sin would disapear.
In truth no law ever made a man sober or peaceful. Laws have only the power to make criminals. They do not now nor have they ever stopped or even reduced the activities they forbid.
Prohibitions of Drugs,guns,sex,hate,thought are all equally wrong. They seek to preemptively punish vice or violence that may or may not even exist. Force is not the answer a beating never made a man wise,peaceful,or faithful.
Why is this so hard for the mainstream to swallow?
We should go back to the time alcohol was illegal but , this time keep it illegal. Acohol is responsible for perhaps millions of murders , blood on our highways , assaults , littering , vandalism , health problems including diabetes , strokes , heart attacks , liver problems and a host of other heath related problems yet , the Alcohol , drug and tobacco companies continue to spend millions into deceptive advertisments to trick you into thinking marijuana is a bad drug . Well , marijuana does none of these things , nor does it kill you or cause irreversible harm to the human body . Outlaw Alcohol not marijuana .
I always wondered why they lifted the ban on alcohol but marijuana is still illegal and does not harm anyone,on the other hand alcohol kills many every year!!!! Lawmakers suck!!!
http://Www.organicmedicine.blogspot.com
http://www.benefitsofmedicalmarijuana.blogspot.com
The absolute hypocrisy.That stem’s from both period’s of alchoholic prohibition too the now corruptive marijuna prohibiton.Brings too bare that the policy of of today are stll laced with irresonsible bias and dogmas created by legislation.Slated too big oil and the drug companies!and as long as lobbiyist and special itrest get’s to pay politician’s for favorable legislation too keep prohibition in place on marijuana.They will be dicrimating against the American public intrest.because it constitute a conflict of intrest on all of us.
Before alcohol prohibition the future gangsters were nothing more than pickpockets and petty thugs. The vast sums of money from illegal booze turned them into millionaires with access to the highest levels of society and government. When prohibition was repealed these same gangsters spearheaded the drive to outlaw marijuana as a way to make up the lost revenue, succeeding five years later in 1937. Let all who ask for your vote be told that BY SUPPORTING MARIJUANA PROHIBITION THEY ARE REVEALING THEMSELVES TO BE MERE TOOLS OF ORGANIZED CRIME. REFUSE TO EVER VOTE FOR ANY CANDIDATE WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT FULL LEGALIZATION, NO EXCEPTIONS.
NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS 2009
1. REFUSE TO VOTE FOR ANY CANDIDATE FOR ANY PUBLIC OFFICE WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT FULL LEGALIZATION.
2. REFUSE TO PLEDGE MONEY TO NPR UNTIL COVERAGE OF
PROHIBITION IS MORE BALANCED.
3. REVOKE YOUR ORGAN DONATION STATUS UNTIL MARIJUANA USAGE ( LEGAL OR OTHERWISE ) IS NO LONGER A DISQUALFIER TO GETTING A TRANSPLANT.
RE – #2 Notice how on NPR programs the prohibitionist line is always the only viewpoint given time. Call into any NPR program and mention marijuana, see how long it takes them to hang up. This is because NPR now gets paid to air ONDCP ads, NPR has sold out it’s journalistic credibility. Next pledge drive JUST SAY NO to NPR.
RE – #3 Testing positive for Marijuana will in and of itself cause YOU TO BE DENIED
Sorry hit the “enter button by mistake.
RE – #3 Testing positive for marijuana usage will in and of itself cause YOU to be denied an organ transplant in EVERY hospital in EVERY state of the Union. This is especially true in the Legal Medical Marijauna states. Use a tenth of the energy we’ve seen waisting our time on Change.org and Change.gov. Go to the NPR and ORGAN DONATION websites and inform them of your boycott, see how long it takes to CHANGE their punitive attitudes and policy’s.
You think that after real doctors across the world have admitted that marijuana does have medical purposes would trigger some thought in the minds of politics. And if that does not say anything, how bout the millions that they would not have to spend on that section of the DEA. Also to see that there are 13 states that have decriminalized the substance and there has been no crime increase; same for Canada. NO crime increase there either.
FREE POPCORN old man didnt do any harm!
You can not confront the issues of today with the memories of yesterday.Make your opinion heard by voicing your concerns to the powers that be.We’re as close as we have ever been to bringing an end to the persecution of non-violent users of this plant.
The lie actually started in 1900,there was a conflict of interest with the growing drug manufactures.It culminated
with the 1914 laws enacted against hemp.During the war years that followed the US realized that they could not depend on the rope,cloth,and paper products of this beneficial fibrous weed.Still the money of special interests won out.Now there is a chance to reverse this.Focus,facts,and support will replace the darkness that still surrounds marijuana.Reverse,Repeal,and Reinstate this commodity.
Thanks for letting me know about the marijuana prohibition. i agree for what Benjamin Rush did.
The reason why alcohol was truly involved in prohibition is because the government didn’t know exactly how to tax it and how to treat it as a product at the time and the same with marijuana only marijuana has never been written down as cause of death ever since it was first used. Which is really f***ed up how alcohol and other substances such as tobacco are legal and causes tons of deaths each year yet marijuana hasn’t.