Cheers! Slainte Mhor! Prost!

Today marks a delightful milestone for Americans. The first step of the repeal of prohibition, being able to drink a damn beer. On April 7th, 1933 prohibition was sort of ended. FDR raised the alcohol minimum from 0.5% to 3.2%. True repeal of prohibition wasn't until the following December 5th. With that, the bootleggers and mob connections that profiteered so much from illegal booze soon had to find their dirty money elsewhere. So, today, tonight, raise a mug high and toast what was the first step of regaining your freedom from nitpicking religious fanatics to relax and enjoy a drink.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been president barely a month, having been sworn in on March 4 after a landslide victory the previous November. Sweeping into power with him was an anti-Prohibition majority in Congress known as "the wets."

Together they fulfilled their first campaign promise with passage of the Cullen-Harrison Act, which increased the amount of alcohol allowed in beverages from 0.5 percent to a discernible 3.2 percent by weight.

When the act took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET April 7, trucks and carriages burst out of brewery gates bearing cases and barrels of beer for a parched republic -- at least for the District of Columbia and the 20 states whose laws permitted it. Several breweries dispatched cases directly to the White House and the Capitol.

According to the Brewers Association, more than 1.5 million barrels were snapped up in the first 24 hours.

"It's a big deal. ... The whole industry of beer has gotten together to say this date is definitely historic," said Julia Herz, spokeswoman for the Brewers Association, which represents smaller "craft" brewers.

In St. Louis, Missouri, megabrewer Anheuser-Busch is throwing a big bash, complete with historical exhibits and an appearance by the company's famous Clydesdale horses.

Indeed it is a big day. It marks a major milestone in progressive and secular thinking. To some it may be just a semblance to get drunk. For others, such as myself, it represents freedom from oppressive religious fanatics bent on forcing the world to their dogmatic interpretations. Some might see that as a far stretch, but consider much of the fanatic Muslim world where alcohol is prohibited due to religious interpretation. Much of what drove the prohibition movement was, in fact, religious wrangling.

Remnants of Prohibition survive today in the form of state-owned liquor stores and local laws that, for example, prevent sales of alcohol on Sundays or in grocery stores. Some counties remain entirely dry, banning alcohol sales altogether, and 3.2 beer is still sold in six states (Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah), according to Modern Brewery Age magazine.
- Source

Well, obviously not everyone is going to be celebrating. All of this does make me wonder, though... How much longer until we will be celebrating the same with cannabis? It only took a scant 13 years for people to realize that prohibition didn't work with alcohol. How much longer will it take, how many more people will have their lives ruined from incarceration because of cannabis and other soft drugs before the federal government realizes it's the exact same thing? We have the largest number of inmates imprisoned in the world, and estimates are that 15% to as much as 30% of those are non-violent drug offenders.

Anyways, enough of that.

Cheers! Prost! Slainte Mhor! And may we be here for another beer next year and many, many more.






The Pogues
Repeal of The Licensing Laws