> This post could have easily been written about alcohol in the prohibition era. We've since learned that criminalizing alcohol makes its impact on society wors

> This post could have easily been written about alcohol in the prohibition era. We've since learned that criminalizing alcohol makes its impact on society worse rather than better. It's worth remembering that Prohibition was, in fact, quite successful: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/5/18518005/prohibition-alcohol-public-health-crime-benefits https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/5/18518005/prohibit... To quote that article: > Across the Hudson River, in Manhattan, the number of patients treated in Bellevue Hospital’s alcohol wards dropped from fifteen thousand a year before Prohibition to under six thousand in 1924. Nationally, cirrhosis deaths fell by more than a third between 1916 and 1929. In Detroit, arrests for drunkenness declined 90 percent during Prohibition’s first year. Domestic violence complaints fell by half. Of course, one can still find Prohibition objectionable, or think that the costs outweighed the benefits. But there is strong evidence that Prohibition succeeded in reducing some of the negative impacts of alcohol use.