Prohibition has an ever-increasing impact on our daily life. In the United States, prohibition against certain drugs, involving “wars” on them, has become one of our most visible and hotly debated national problems. The purpose of the following investigation is to improve our understanding of the origins and results of prohibition, and therefore indirectly to contribute to future policymaking, shifting it toward rationality.

I hold that there is nothing much wrong with standard economic methodology as laid down in the first chapter of almost every textbook in economic theory; what is wrong is that economists do not practice what they preach.

—Mark Blaug, The Methodology of Economics

The strange phenomenon of Prohibition, after an appearance amongst us of over three years, is still non-understandable to the majority of a great, and so-called free, people. It is one of the most astonishing manifestations the world has ever witnessed. It came upon us like a phantom, swiftly; like a thief in the night, taking us by surprise. Yet the Prohibitionists will tell you that no one should be amazed, since for years—for almost a century—quiet forces have been at work to bring about this very thing.

The historical, biological, and statistical sources, however, yield little in the way of verifiable facts or properly constructed data. The conclusions typically drawn after a reading of this literature vary about as widely as the alleged facts and are frequently derived without the aid of elementary logic.

—Robert J. Michaels, “The Market for Heroin before and after Legalization”

Another factor contributing to increased health consequences of marijuana use is the increase in potency over the past several years.

—The White House Drug Abuse Policy Office, 1984 National Strategy for Prevention of Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking

Heroin abusers are infamous within U.S. society as persons who criminally victimize others. Involvement in nondrug criminality among our heroin abusers was indeed common and even more frequent than has previously been documented.

—(B. D. Johnson et al., Taking Care of Business:
The Economics of Crime by Heroin Abusers)

Corruption is a regular effect of interventionism. An analysis of interventionism would be incomplete if it were not to refer to the phenomenon of corruption.

—(Ludwig von Mises, Human Action)

It seems certain, therefore, that the Eighteenth Amendment cannot be repealed, in whole or in part.

—(Irving Fisher, Prohibition Still at Its Worst)

Abel, Ernest L. 1980. Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years. New York: Plenum Press.

Alchian, Armen, and William R. Allen. 1964. University Economics. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.

Anderson, Gary M., and Robert D. Tollison. 1988. “Democracy, Interest Groups, and the Price of Votes.” Cato Journal 8 (Spring/Summer): 51–70.

Anderson, Patrick. 1981. High in America: The True Story Behind NORML and the Politics of Marijuana. New York: Viking Press.

ABC News poll, 76n

Abel, C. T, 107

Abel, Ernest L., 65

abolitionist movement, 43, 46, 48

absenteeism of employees, impact of alcohol consumption on, 25–27, 26 (table), 28–29, 29 (table)

abstinence pledges, 44–45