The Chemist's War
The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.

Quote :

"It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat. Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season. Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then, the routine of life in the Prohibition era. The bootlegged whiskies and so-called gins often made people sick. The liquor produced in hidden stills frequently came tainted with metals and other impurities. But this outbreak was bizarrely different. The deaths, as investigators would shortly realize, came courtesy of the U.S. government."

http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/pagenum/all/

2/28/2010 3:22:06 PM

If they made it illegal to consume, its not really poisoning, is it?

2/28/2010 3:31:04 PM

2/28/2010 3:39:56 PM

^^ WHATEVER ALIAS

[Edited on February 28, 2010 at 3:40 PM. Reason : ]

2/28/2010 3:40:37 PM

Quote :

"poi·son [poi-zuhn] –noun 1.a substance with an inherent property that tends to destroy life or impair health. 2.something harmful or pernicious, as to happiness or well-being: the poison of slander. 3.Slang. any variety of alcoholic liquor: Name your poison! –verb (used with object) 4.to administer poison to (a person or animal). 5.to kill or injure with or as if with poison. 6.to put poison into or upon; saturate with poison: to poison food. 7.to ruin, vitiate, or corrupt: Hatred had poisoned his mind."

Well, the dictionary is pretty clear that this is poisoning. The clearly expressed purpose of the government was to hurt people. That's poisoning no matter how you slice it.

I do, however, have slightly less sympathy on the dead consumers than I would normal victims of murder. But only by a little bit.

Every person who knew about this at the time, and said nothing, should be prosecuted if you can find any still alive.

[Edited on February 28, 2010 at 3:46 PM. Reason : a]

2/28/2010 3:44:58 PM

electric or spiked fences, barbed wire, and ink tags all use the same logic.

This of course was common in this time period before it was outlawed by katko vs briney.

[Edited on February 28, 2010 at 3:50 PM. Reason : ^nope, grandfather, statute of limitations etc...]

2/28/2010 3:49:33 PM

^^ you should have just ignored the comment…

Quote :

""The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol," New York City medical examiner Charles Norris said at a hastily organized press conference"

nice, Chuck Norris.

Also, for further fuel to this thread, this happened under the Republican administrations of Coolidge and Hoover.

It wasn’t until FDR, a Democrat, that this was repealed.

[Edited on February 28, 2010 at 3:51 PM. Reason : ]

2/28/2010 3:50:32 PM

No need to turn this into politics. Fact is it was about 45 years from being illegal.

2/28/2010 3:52:26 PM

Quote :

"It wasn’t until FDR, a Democrat, that this was repealed."

Untrue. The government still poisons the nation's alcohol supply. It just kills far fewer people nowadays.

2/28/2010 4:13:37 PM

Quote :

"The government still poisons the nation's alcoholmethanol supply."

Fixed it for you.

2/28/2010 4:16:13 PM

^ right. my bad.

2/28/2010 6:03:26 PM

USA #1

Amurica of Freedums woooo!!

2/28/2010 9:32:27 PM

Methanol is already poisonous...right, AngryOldMan and LoneSnark?

I mean, I thought they poisoned ethanol with methanol to keep us from drinking it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

I guess I don't see why the government would poison the nation's methanol supply when methanol is poisonous to begin with.

2/28/2010 11:25:33 PM

Angryoldman made a mistake and I didn't both checking. Yes, they are still poisoning the nation's ethanol supply, and alcohol is just ethanol by a different name. I don't know what they are doing with the methanol supply, but if it is poisonous by itself then maybe that is where they got the idea from.

3/1/2010 10:34:49 AM

Before you know it, they'll poison our arsenic and strychnine!

3/1/2010 12:22:49 PM