Wednesday 28 February 2007

Prohibition

The petition is entitled Introduce the law of Prohibition, banning the import and sale of all alcohol and the explanatory notes say
"Alcohol is a root cause of many of society's problems - yob culture, anti social behaviour, domestic violence, dangerous driving and so on. It is also the cause of many health problems. Why should this highly dangerous and addictive drug be legal when other substances that are on par with this evil are illegal. The introduction of prohibition will free up much needed NHS and police resources, save lives and remove the constant misery from people's lives that alcohol causes."

This is the sort of petition that one suspects must really be a joke, or sarcastic - the petitioner, surely, knows enough to know what a useless proposal this is? Surely what they're actually advocating is the de-prohibition (dehibition? that can't be right) of the drugs he considers "on a par" with it.

Surely he knows the history of the US's attempt at prohibition - how alcohol consumption went up, and how inevitable a similar reaction here would be? Surely he knows that police costs would rise trying to control the prohibition, and, doubtless, NHS costs would rise as people brewed and distilled inexpertly and poisoned themselves on meths and other by-products?

Well, presumably not, or he wouldn't have posted the petition. Silly him.

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