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No. 501

December 5, 2003

Back Door to Prohibition

The New War on Social Drinking

by Radley Balko

Executive Summary

still others by censoring alcohol advertisements.

December 2003 marks the 70th anniversary

State and federal government officials have also

of the Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed

sought to curb alcohol abuse from the demand

alcohol prohibition in the United States. The 13

side, but such efforts ultimately prove misguid-

years between the passage of the Eighteenth and

ed. The 2000 federal law that encouraged local

Twenty-First Amendments saw the alcohol trade

officials to lower the legal threshold for drunken

go underground, bringing with it all the ancillary

driving, for example, will have little effect on

crime that comes with a black market. Alcohol

public safety. Instead, it shifts law enforcement

abuse in the United States went up, not down,

resources away from catching heavily intoxicated

and civil liberties and tax dollars were sacrificed

drunk drivers, who pose a risk, to harassing

to what amounted to a grand, failed experiment

responsible social drinkers, who don't.

in state-enforced morality.

Taken together, the well-organized efforts of

One would think that, given the failure of

activists, law enforcement, and policymakers por-

Prohibition, Americans wouldn't need to worry

tend an approaching "back-door prohibition"--an

about its return. That may not be the case. A well-

effort to curb what some of them call the "envi-

funded movement of neoprohibitionists is afoot,

ronment of alcoholism"--instead of holding indi-

with advocates in media, academia, and govern-

vidual drinkers responsible for their actions.

ment. The movement sponsors a variety of

Policymakers should be wary of attempts to

research organizations, which publish dozens of

restrict choice when it comes to alcohol. Such

studies each year alleging the corruptive effects

policies place the external costs attributable to a

of alcohol. Those studies are taken at face value

small number of alcohol abusers on the large per-

by well-intentioned policymakers at the local,

centage of people who consume alcohol responsi-

state, and federal level. New laws are enacted that

bly. Those efforts didn't work when enacted as a

curb Americans' access to alcohol.

wide-scale, federal prohibition, and they are also

Some of those laws aim to make alcohol less

ineffective and counterproductive when imple-

available through taxation schemes, others

mented incrementally.

through strict licensing or zoning requirements,

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Radley Balko is the editor of Cato.org and a columnist for FoxNews.com.