Is a new Prohibition movement brewing?

Posted on May 19, 2020 in Drunk Driving

As frequent readers of our Arizona DUI Defense Blog know, we regularly share information that can be useful to people facing a drunk driving charge or who have a loved one accused of driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol.

We recently read a column about a concern that many share: the “increasing number of individuals and organizations (that) have been decrying the use of alcohol.” Even more worrisome is that those voices have grown louder during the coronavirus pandemic.

Writer Bob McGinn has spent his career in various parts of the wine industry: from consulting with restaurants to vine management, fermentation and yeast analysis. Though a wine connoisseur can’t be a neutral observer, McGinn nevertheless constructs a solid argument in expressing his worry that there is a growing suggestion that a modern Prohibition might bea good idea.

For instance, McGinn points out that Surgeon General Jerome Adams last month said “all Americans” should “avoid” alcohol. McGinn notes as well that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf shut down “without explanation” all state-owned liquor stores and that his order prompted border residents of his state to flood nearby Ohio stores to purchase alcohol.

That surge prompted Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to close liquor stores near the Pennsylvania border.

McGinn writes that this anti-alcohol sentiment has been building for a decade or so, but has increased in intensity during the coronavirus pandemic. He says the sentiment isn’t limited to the U.S., “as evidenced by South Africa not only curtailing domestic alcohol sales, but wine exports, as well.”

He writes that when you consider the statements and actions together, they might well “indicate that politicians may now be buying into a new Prohibition movement.”

McGinn concedes that alcohol abuse is a legitimate problem, but that moderate consumption of alcohol has medical and relaxation benefits that enable people to better cope with the pandemic’s many stresses.