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The US government once methylated alcohol to try to convince people to follow prohibition. https://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5975605/alcohol-prohibition-poison http

• refurb 6y ago
  Good old Vox finding nefarious deeds in everything. The gov't still "poisons" alcohol today. It's called "denatured" alcohol and there are a bunch of "poisons" added like diesel, methanol, Bitrex, etc. It's done because the gov't wants their alcohol tax.
  • himinlomax 6y ago
    You're just being stupid. Denaturing agents are used to make the product unpalatable. They may be mildly toxic, but they are so disgusting that users typically don't absorb much of it. Methanol, on the other hand, is not just more toxic but also reportedly tastes better than than ethanol. As such it encourages people to drink it. Using it to punish illicit alcohol drinkers is just plain evil.
    • refurb 6y ago
      Wrong. They still sell “methylated spirits” today, where the only adulterant is methanol. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol And no, they didn’t used methanol to encourage people to drink it - that’s just silly. Not everything is a conspiracy.
  • elil17 6y ago
    Yes, but people were dying en-mass from methanol poisoning
    • refurb 6y ago
      I don’t disagree. But spinning a story where the govt was intentionally trying to poison people is a bit much.