Prohibition in the United States: a 100-Year Retrospective – The Cost of Deregulation

The New Britain Herald, January 11, 1927

During the Prohibition era, an average of 1000 Americans died annually from the effects of drinking tainted alcohol. This was due in part to the deregulated market, as consumers rarely knew the origins of what they were drinking, but it was also due to a Coolidge-era change that made industrial alcohol more dangerous for human consumption. In 1926, as bootleggers continued to “renature” industrial alcohol, neutralizing harmful toxins and rendering it safer for human consumption (and sale), the Coolidge Administration responded with a more toxic denaturing formula to deter the public from drinking what would otherwise be used in perfume, laundry detergent, and other cleaning fluids. The Treasury Department then mandated the use of that formula, which included methyl, in the production of industrial alcohol. The Federal Government was unwavering as this change resulted in poisoning deaths, and a Federal Grand Jury issued this statement after an incident in 1928 where 33 people died in one day in Manhattan: 

Inasmuch as wood alcohol is not a beverage, but a recognized poison […] and its use and sale are not regulated by any of the Federal laws, we respectfully report that in those particular instances the subject matter is for the consideration of the State authorities rather than the Federal authorities. The State laws regulate the sale of poisons and provide for punishment for their improper use and sale.

In response to the alcohol poisoning deaths he observed in the years that followed the change, Charles Norris, Chief Medical Examiner of New York City from 1918–1935, said in a statement,  

[…] let us not blame the Government too harshly. […] The unfortunate difficulty lies in the fact that no one has yet devised a practical way to make alcohol fit for business and at the same time unfit for drinking without also making it more or less poisonous.

In 1919, days before the official start to Prohibition, about 100 people in New England, including at least 50 people from Connecticut, died as a result of consuming whiskey containing wood alcohol (now known as methanol). The deaths were traced back to mobster John Romanelli, who stole barrels of wood alcohol from Delta Chemical Co. in Michigan and passed it off as whiskey. Romanelli was sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years for his involvement. 

 

New Britain Herald, December 27, 1919

The deregulated cannabis market poses similar dangers to the public. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana is the most widely used federally illegal drug in the country, with 18% of Americans using it at least once in 2019. In the modern day, popular synthetic substitutes, including K2/Spice, and marijuana laced with more dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, are prevalent in the absence of regulations and testing. Synthetic marijuana can be more addictive, more psychologically intense, and has been known to result in vomiting, seizures, kidney damage, and reduced blood supply to the heart. Marijuana that has been laced with a more dangerous drug introduces the risks of that drug to its user.

In the same way that riskier bootlegged alcohol was easier to come by than alcohol that had been stockpiled before Prohibition went into effect, synthetic cannabinoids are popular because they are inexpensive and easy to get. On the New Haven Green in August 2018, 85 people overdosed on synthetic marijuana that had been laced with fentanyl. There were no recorded deaths from the drug, as first responders were equipped with naloxone and administered it to those affected, but the incident exemplified the dangers of a deregulated drug market.