Alcoholism -- politics and public health
One has to face it. Alcoholism is a growing problem for governments all over the world. In the 30s, the government of America started a movement against alcoholic consumption. This meant that they made drinking illegal. What happened then? The moon rituals known as Prohibition, gave rise to many people deciding that it was fun to break the law. Artificial distilleries came up and the drinks, which could not be sold in public, were sold in speakeasies.
Women also approved of this move to stop alcohol consumption, and songs came up with lyrics such as these, "those lips that touch wine would never touch mine." Of course, the end result was the men folk went off to do the lip- touching with those women who did not mind the consumption of wine and who also did not mind downing the same in the newest and most thrilling speakeasy. Half of the classic cocktail recipes, were concocted during the Prohibition era!
When the government found out that prohibition was getting to be a flop idea, because saying no to the public meant that they would do it even more, they decided to stop it. And that was when the giants of the liquor industry came up. Guinness and other liquor companies began to flourish, because after all, drinking was around to stay. Politics also got associated with the tobacco and the liquor industry, because it soon became a multimillion-dollar industry. So, however much an enterprising politician tries to pass a bill restricting the use of tobacco and alcohol in the name of public health, there is another politician ready to counteract that effect. That is the sad state of politics and public health.
