Poor Choice Of Spokeswomen
March 2, 2008
Not a terribly effective deterrent I imagine.
It’s always helpful to remember that legislation of morality is a very old thing in the United States. There are obviously numerous parallels between alcohol prohibition and today’s drug prohibition laws, right down to the ridiculous advertising.
‘Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Not Touch Ours’ was a political slogan used by the Anti-Saloon League, the leading prohibitionist organization in the early 20th century. The ASL was a brilliant lobbyist organization, achieving nation wide prohibition for 14 terrible years, but they were clearly pretty shoddy when it came to advertising.
They still exist too, but they’re now called the American Council on Alcohol Problems.
More prohibition propoganda (anti and pro) after the jump:
Good for the engine, but not the engineer
Carrie Nation
Source More on the old battle axe Carrie Nation
‘We Make People Poor’
Drunkard
Noble Experiment
Source That’s Herbert Hoover looking on.
Vote the Straight Democratic Ticket
Repeal Prohibition
Stamp Out Prohibition
Non Essential
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Prohibition was actually highly successful. Most Americans were law abiding citizens, and when it became illegal, gave it up willingly. The problem came with the new outlet for crime, and the odd 20% of Americans who just couldn’t give up the bottle.
The real failure of Prohibition was not in the law, but in those people who are constantly seeking new ways to extort the average citizen.
Perhaps we need prohibition to make a comeback. But this time it should include drugs as well as alcohol and carry severe sentences for users instead of chasing dealers or sellers.
We also need to think in terms of alternative sentences such as life long loss of driving privileges for those caught while intoxicated regardless of whether they are driving or sitting in their own home. The real crimes rests in wanting to get high.
I wouldn’t exactly consider a law that one in five people broke to be successful… Prohibition failed in the same way marijuana’s illegality is failing now. Out of five people in either one of these laws, one person was scared off because of the law, one person broke it, and three people genuinely accepted it. (Probably less than three but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here…)
Honestly, how many people do you know that haven’t tried pot? How many that have?
And Jim Sadler, your idea of the way things are is extremely flawed. Prohibition is already there for drugs, though users are being targeted instead of sellers, so users are afraid to go to rehab, and when wanting to do something is a crime we are officially in the dark ages again.
Be glad you aren’t in politics.
Ur a fuckin idiot jim. what right do you have to stop me from getting high? am I going to affect your life in anyway whether i do or not?
NO!
@jim sadler:
Who are you to tell me what’s good for me? And who am I hurting by smoking a joint in the privacy of my own home? If it doesn’t pertain to you, then what I do in my home is none of your concern. It’s fascists like you that are tearing this country apart by violently tearing away our personal freedoms. What I do to/with my own body affects me and only me, so mind your own.
Prohibition shouldn’t be reinstated. Drugs don’t cause violence or crime, making them illegal does. Who are you to tell me what I can put into my body? Read the Constitution and you just might learn that prohibition of any kind IS unconstitutional.
“Perhaps we” should arrest people who are thinking impure thoughts ” whether they are driving or sitting in their homes”. Then we would have a perfect world, now won’t we? Mr. Jim Sandler you would of fit in perfect in Nazi Germany. This is America where we have the right to be free and the right to be free from you.
who the fuck are you squares???? and what do you mean “Perhaps we need prohibition to make a comeback. But this time it should include drugs as well as alcohol and carry severe sentences for users instead of chasing dealers or sellers.”
that is currently in place(barring alcohol)!!! and you can see who wildly successful it’s been in curbing drug use. Every single person I know could go and get any drugs they want to at any hour. You can never suppress the desire to alter one’s mind!!!!! and I think veeeeeeeeeeerrry few americans gave up alcohol “willingly” and I also think very few even gave it up!!! Evidenced perhaps by prohibitions repeal???
“But this time it should include drugs as well as alcohol and carry severe sentences for users instead of chasing dealers or sellers.”
What country do you live in?
Here in the US prohibition of drugs has been in full effect for drugs for years (it’s called ‘the war on drugs’) and many small time users receive prison sentences.
Others do coke & binge drinking and end up president.
And the award for dumbest internet comment ever goes to….. Jim Sadler
bring back prohibition? why has there been such a war on nature during the last century or so? these substances have been around and consumed by man since the dawn of time. you will never be able to eradicate something that can be grown in your backyard, or fermented in your basement. you cant leglislate morality.
i saw a report the other day that says afghanistan produces 95% of the worlds opium, and we all know columbia makes most of the cocaine. dont you realize that if these substances werent illegal, than there wouldnt be a black market for them? if you could go to the drugstore and buy opium as you could in the 1930’s, then there wouldnt be any druglords or taliban making huge drug profits. people will use substances whether they are legal or not, but if they are illegal, then the profits all go to shady people. there wouldnt be any gang drug turf wars in LA, or chicago because there wouldnt be a profit in illegal drugs or booze if i could go to wal-mart and buy some.
Prohibition is stupid and should be entirely abandoned.
What the fuck are you both smoking? The government should not be using the legal system to solve a social problem. NEWS FLASH: Most folks are pretty responsible when using alcohol or pot. No crime rests in wanting to get high and fuck you for trying to tell me what I can or can’t do to my body.
Fuck the both of you. Damn idiots.
Jim Sadler, the radical moron of the month.
Actually, considering that the entirety of organized crime in the US came about as a result of Prohibition to supply the “20%”, I’d say it was a miserable failure. People want to drink. Regardless of your own personal (delusional) reality, that won’t change.
“The real failure of Prohibition was not in the law, but in those people who are constantly seeking new ways to extort the average citizen.” No, the failure was in the belief that your morals should be enforced by the law.
DIAF.
No Jim, the real crime lies in the unfairness of the sentencing. Crack cocaine carries a huge automatic sentence compared to powder cocaine, the net result is millions of poor americans in jail while the coke snorting lawyers, mayors and media pay a fine at the most.
There is no “crime” in wanting to escape shitty reality. There is, however, a crime in your wanting to enforce choice on other people via a system of capital punishment.
Many people complain of being born in the wrong period of history, perhaps you feel the same and pine for the crusades, inquisition… Perhaps even Kristallnacht might have sounded like a good night out on the town for you?
to Jim.
How was dat dare class, did you learn a lot, yes, drugs bad books good awwww what a sweetie pie.
Wyatt, how do you mean prohibition was successful?
There were over 10,000 speakeasies in chicago alone, and even if that fact was true, that 20% of the country couldn’t give it up, 20% is a huge number if we are dealing with the entire country.
Alcohol, much like recreational drugs such as cannabis, if there is a demand for a substance, then criminals will supply the substance.
Prohibition was more successful in the early years then in the latter as well, arrests went up for drink related crimes as time went on, but so did the amount of alcohol being drunk.
I think we should not only make all drugs and alcohol illegal, but have life in prison sentences for the first offense. This should really teach those sinners that they are not smart enough to decide what to do to their own bodies. Really we should be assigning people to careers, because they might make mistakes if we let them choose for themselves. I mean the drug war is working so well, why not bring back prohibition? Its nearly impossible to get weed these days!
Dear Jim,
There is a prohibition on drugs. I see that you aren’t very aware of the laws and what have you but thats alright I will forgive you this time for your ignorance. More to the point whom are you to dictate what one can or can’t do in the privacy in thier own home? Are you God? Who are you to jugde? I have a feeling my friend that you are no saint yourself so how can you just cast judgement. Prohibition obviously wont work because it didnt work then, isnt working now and wont work in the future because it’s all about the freedom to choose for yourself..if no one is harming anyone then who are we to say what that person does with their life. Only they themself can decided wether or not drinking is right for them as well as everything eles in thier life…..and if you dissagree with this than you proably have control issues and need to face the fact that nothing is under control….either that or you are just a dick.
The real crime rests in wanting to get high? Jim, you do realise that America locks up 1 in 100 of it’s citizens, and you now live in a police state, and you believe the government should be more harsh on a victimless crime?
Lucky I’m not living in America, so please knock yourself out, lock up everyone you know, how is that war on x working out for you?
If only you knew how much the rest of the world laughs at you.
@jim sadler: Hillarious! JUST MAKING STUFF ILLEGAL DOES NOT WORK. If you know the history and still dont believe this you’re a closed minded fuck.
Seriously a very large part of ~1% of Americans are already in jail because stupid laws about drugs. Making stuff more illegal makes them more risky but also more profitable if demand stays.(And 20% still drank alcohol, illegally? You call THAT a success? And maybe it was ‘wouldnt’ instead of ‘couldnt’, i seriously doubt that 20% was the percentage of drunks.)
Also many of these drugs(including alcohol) can be managed while still having a life (both working and social) how can you seriously consider yourself taking the moral high road by making it illegal? You can not, illegalising things that most people can deal with without harming themselves simply is fascistic.
I am not a libertarian, though. Sure, some drugs simply are too addictive or damaging to keep legal, and after all, if you want (universal)healthcare, a little prevention is needed too. Still, even for these, you shouldnt be trying to punish victims.
There is nothing immoral about enjoying yourself. Before making moral judgements about drugs think about their effects, rather dimly just considering drugs themselves immoral. Dont trust official research on the subject, these are censored, or sob stories and selected to much to great degree.
PS In general ALWAYS connect the morality of something to actual effects it has to other persons.
PS2 I guess you could believe one of those religions where enjoying yourself actually is a sin. In that case, consider freedom of religion, and good luck.
Wow. That sounds like a great idea. While we’re at it, why don’t we make anything that doesn’t jive with your personal ideals illegal. In case you gentlemen have forgotten, America isn’t great because of what you CAN’T do inside its borders but rather what you CAN.
Yes because our jails aren’t crowded enough without adding more non violent offenders to the situation.
Jim and Wyatt are a couple of self important Duechebags!
Jim, I find your comment worrying and fascist! Wanting to get high should not be seen as a crime. If the billions of dollars that have already been spent on “The war on drugs” had been saved, (not to mention the billions spent on “the war on terror”), people could be helped out of poverty with government funding, tax relief, community projects etc. and probably wouldn’t feel the need to escape the reality of their lives quite so desperately.
I am not advocating drink driving or drug driving, I am just scared by your opressive opinions!
Why should you decide what other people do and put into their bodies? Fuck you.
Add sugar, caffeine, and nicotine. People would lead more happier and wholesome lives without the use of ‘legal’ additives, pick up an apple or some other fruit, if you want more sweetness add stevia.
You commenters know nothing about economy — read something about supply and demand to understand how Prohibition and the War on Drugs create problems for the rest of us.
Prohibition was a big a catastrophe as is the War on Drugs, and trying to mislead your audience into thinking otherwise is a foolish revisionist attempt that is doomed to fail under the sheer weight of evidence.
Next time you’ll be legislating that Pi equals 3, or that gravity should pull upwards.
Initiatives
Attorney Gen. File #: 2007-064
California Cannabis Hemp & Health Initiative 2008
Legalization of Marijuana-Related Activities. The initiative provides that no per-son, individual, or corporate entity could be prosecuted for the possession, cultivation, transportation, distribution, or consumption of cannabis hemp, including hemp industrial products, hemp medicinal preparations, hemp nutritional products, and hemp religious or recreational products. All of these products use as an ingredient the hemp plant commonly referred to as cannabis or marijuana. This measure also provides that the manufacture, marketing, distribution, or sale between adults of equipment or accessories associated with the above products shall not be prohibited.
California Hemp Initiative Volunteers is looking for volunteer petition signature collectors
http://www.myspace.com/hemp2008
http://capwiz.com/norml2/mailapp/
Wow. Breathtakingly bad grasps of history and social justice issues you two.
Oh good lord, Jim, are you a nut or what?
NO, we should NOT bring back prohibition and include drugs. It just makes people want to do it more. Its exciting to break the law on something so trivial to people.
The country is already wasting (and has wasted) billions of dollars trying to stop just marijuana and it hasn’t done ANY good at all. Its made it like a luxury and driven UP prices to those who would take advantage of the black market sales.
Hate to say it, but people like indulging themselves be it sex, drugs, or rock and roll. Making indulgences illegal will NEVER make them go away.
Yes, the laws for driving under the influence should be strong, but sitting in your own home? Thats just stupid. If you aren’t hurting anyone else, why should it be illegal? You ever see what a pot smoker does with his time? He sits in front of a tv and eats cheetos.
“OH MY GOD! He’s got a cheeto!!!!!! He could get orange cheesy fingers on the couch! We need to make that illegal!!”
Somehow I don’t find that very insidious.
The *REAL* crime rests in us as a society sub-consiously educating our children to only look out for number one and to indulge ourselves.
THAT is what needs to be addressed. Making something illegal is just putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. Instead we should be asking, “Why do these people need drugs and or alcohol?”, and go from there.
Disclaimer: I do not drink (besides an occasional beer), nor do I smoke pot. So no, I am not biased.
The reason people use drugs is not because they are criminal, its because they are unhappy and are looking for an escape from their lives. Is it a crime because your life sucks? We could blame them or we could stop wasting billions of dollars on the “War on Drugs” that is clearly not working any and put the money to more productive uses. People want to use drugs, they even use legal drugs that they know will kill them, so it is not likely a law will stop them. By making drugs illegal, people will just go to greater, more unsafe lengths to get them. Thereby opening the door for drug dealers to make money and making it more likely innocent people will be caught in the crossfire. For example, if marijuana were legal and it could be brought at the local drug store, many people would have no need to even associate with the common “drug dealer” types. Thus when even if the average marijuana user wanted to experiment with a more serious drug they would have no idea where to buy it from, whereas now they just simple ask the guy they buy pot from.
“Most Americans were law abiding citizens, and when it became illegal, gave it up willingly”
I think that statement is totally wrong. Got any statistics to back it up?
Perhaps we need the previous responder to pick up a copy of the Constitution and read it at least once. Caught in your home drinking and lose privileges for life?? SERIOUSLY??
@Wyatt: “and the odd 20% of Americans who just couldn’t give up the bottle.”
20% that didnt give up the bottle is a failure. And you seriously think that it was ‘couldnt’ instead of ‘wouldnt’. Was a whopping 20% alcoholic?
There is nothing wrong with enjoying oneself. The approach you take seems to make drugs immoral instead of considering what effects they have on actual people. If a drug is not highly addictive or destructive (as with alcohol, weed for instance) it is plain fascism to prohibit it.
And which sonofabitch removed my previous post. It was decent enough.
Jim sadler,
Excuse me sir, but have you ever met an addict? A real hard-line alcoholic or drug user? Obviously not, as it’s a very real disease. Those afflicted are often at the mercy of addiction with little ability to control the urges, or to conceive future consequences to their action. Whether drugs are illegal, legal, free, expensive, those with the predisposition will find a way to outlet their self destructive behavior. In fact, lets say that we abolished all drugs. Thats fine and dandy, no more heroin addicts, but what do we have here? Oh look, a ton of gambling and sex addicts, internet addicts, and porn addicts. In my opinion, and in the opinion of most reasonably minded people, the problem with the war on drugs is that addicts who would benefit more from the mental health system are put in prison for something they practically cannot help.
You must be absolutely insane, live in the bible belt, and have a less than average IQ if you think stopping drug use lies in punishing the end user. The end user is paying too much, being exploited by crime, and no matter what you do will find a way to get high. The demand for illicit substances lies in society, and in the way society treats its people. So long as the pressures of work, relationships, finances, real estate and children are real, so too will the desire for drugs. If anything, considering that those that do will, no matter what measures to take to prevent it, drugs should be supplied by the government to repeat offenders who have been removed from society and placed in mental health facilities. Most addicts have almost no hope of recovery, and shouldnt be treated like criminals.
The only thing worth fighting for, the thing which makes America great, is Freedom. Freedom implies choice, but we as a society cannot control what choices individuals make. It is not the job of the government to tell individuals how to live their lives. The problems that arise from drug and alcohol abuse can and should be treated with education and medical treatment not incarceration. Jim Sadler’s assertion that we should have more severe sentences for non-violent recreational drug users will only compound America’s problem with prison overpopulation. Did you know that 1 in 99 Americans are in jail right now? We are turning average citizens into criminals by criminalizing average behavior. Jim would make being intoxicated in the privacy of your own home illegal; where does it end? What else that you do in the privacy of your own home does the government have the right to regulate?
Oops sorry the post just seems to have popped up again. (Or i was foolishly mistaken.) Apologies
How about we give up our right to free speech or for peaceful assembly too? I know I can do without a lot of my constitutional rights. Why not give them all up?
The government will never consider prohibition again since they’re making money off of it. Soon enough they’ll learn they can make even more money off of drugs if they set up bars and tax the stuff. The only reason people are against drugs is because of the forbidden fruit angle. It’s your own personal responsibility to control your desires, not the governments’.
And it’s not a crime to want to get high. Getting high is an escape, just like alcohol is an escape. If wanting to escape reality was a crime then we’d have to outlaw books, movies, games, etc.
I’m sure Jim was just after a reaction. I looked at his post and was quite sure he was either using a little irony or flaming for fun. I guess it worked.
Lol doubt there would be this much posts if the goddamn thing sticked them for reading immediatly. Then we would see it has been answerred.
Btw, maybe the first two comments were lures.
I suspect that Jim Sadler was mocking prohibition by being sarcastic. Although it’s hard to know anymore as we observe the shocking corruption of the Bush administration police state, and watch as our pathetically weak Democratic Congress cowers and enables it to go on unimpeded. Horrors that couldn’t have happened even 10 years ago are suddenly possible. So maybe Jim Sadler meant what he said. Anything is possible.
I love when people say “morality cannot be legislated”. The person saying it usually means “Hey, don’t take away MY vices!” Morality HAS to be legislated. Things like child abuse, murder, theft, fraud, and assault are immoral. They is legislation against them, for the betterment of society. I support laws that make such immoral acts illegal, too. It just bothers some people that others want to make THEIR immoral acts illegal. I don’t think that alcohol consumption per se is immoral. It has been proven to lead to disease, assault, murder, theft, child abuse, and other immoral acts. So has drug use. Some people just don’t want to be protected from their own stupidity. And they don’t seem to care about stupid people hurting their weaker victims.
I thought Jim Sadler was being facetious. I guess I’m the only one…
I would enjoy nothing more than a bong rip or three after reading those comments. You ant-pot people are stupid.
*anti
Jim, Jim, Jim, Can’t you see what a dismal failure prohibition was I don’t know where you got the 20% number but that is very unrealistic. If only 20% of the people were breaking the law it wouldn’t account for all the speakeasies all over the country and the moonshiners not to mention the organized crime gangs and families that flourished during this dark period in our history. You also mention drugs did you know that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both smoked and grew pot and spoke of the calming effect that it had on ones nerves? I guess not. Maybe you should look into things a bit before you shoot your big mouth off!!
Sorry Jim it was Wyatt who said the 20% comment. Although you agreed with him on all the rest!!
I thought Mr. Sadler was just being an asshole - plain and simple.
Oops, sorry Allen, I didn’t mean to place your name in my comment re asshole Jim. Mike.
wow, jim sadler, you are sadly out of touch with reality with a comment like that.
haha, i didnt read all the other comments after i read jim’s, but i just went back and scanned them before i posted this. glad im not the only one who was so surprised people are still so ignorant in this day and age.
“Non-essential!”
That’s the best insult ever. I’m going to start calling people that…
I believe that Jim is crazy and should probably be admitted to the closest asylum. If you look at some countries in Europe that have legalized drinking for the age of 18, there is less alcoholism. Possibly if we made drugs legal and purchasable in walmart or target it may stop the abuse that is currently going on with these drugs. I have lived in many major cities in the US and have come to one conclusion… Some people need the drugs for the distraction, some just need to do something illegal to get back at the government, and some are truly addicted to it. By making it legal you would knock out to sects of those people.
It is not a good idea to institute laws that make drugs or alcohol completely illegal because it just makes people want to do it more.
I have read over and over again people telling Jim “who are you to tell me what I can and can not do to my body?” I don’t think you should be posing that question to Jim it should be to the government. Who does the government think they are to tell me what I can and can not do based on their moral compass? We all know they don’t have much of one now a days.
In short you should make drugs legal in the United States because then people would not be driven to even try it. There would be no thrill in getting caught. (Yes the number of people abusing the drug would initial go up but it would fall in a year or two.)
Imposing morality via legislation is a much greater evil than alcoholism.
all i can say is lol.
Seriously , why do i want to live in a world where people make laws that tell me what i can drink , what i can eat.
What next put a ban on sex , a ban on video games , a ban on going for a walk?
People need to take there heads out of there ass and start using common sense , since anyone that wants laws for common sense should be kicked in the ass.
Do i need a law to tell me not to drink and drive. Umh hi no i’m not a complete retard, yet most people have no common sense so theres a law.
Do i need a law to tell me not to do drink at all.
Hi i have common sense and self control i don’t need the help.
Maybe we should just kill everyone that doesn’t have self control and common sense.. damn there would be like a dozen people left on the planet.
So far I only count between one and four genuine posters in the comments. The rest are just the same person saying the same thing in a different way. And I expect that “Jim” is the one posting the arguments on both sides, because people with little minds like to do that type of stuff.
Yeah, back on topic? I love how the ad titled ‘drunkard’ lists venereal disease as a symptom of drunkeness. Silly me, all this time I thought you got it from having sex!
Those women in the first picture, like the people in that magician club, demand to be taken seriously.
They tried prohibition in the movies, and it didn’t work.
Does anyone know where I can buy these old anti-alcohol ads? dadcheck@gmail.com
TO JIM: Bravo!!
TO THE JIM HATERS: OMFG!!!, its called satire / sarcasm. Your failure to identify it is perhaps the best argument against your position. Start buying the good stuff. That cheap shit is making you RETARDED.
READ A BOOK!!!
after all this time and mass of comments, i think it’s safe to consider jim as a troll. no problem.