Prohibition Redux?

An interesting study was cited in The National Review this week.

This study was not sponsored by some obscure no-name organization.

The study was done by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

Yes, the same NIH that employs Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Here is the headline of the study.

Source: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/more-americans-65-and-under-died-from-alcohol-related-causes-than-covid-19-in-2020-study-finds/

Alcohol-related deaths increased 25 percent from 2019 to 2020, with alcohol-related deaths among adults younger than 65 outnumbering deaths from Covid-19 in the same age group in 2020, a new study found.

Alcohol-related deaths, including from liver disease and accidents, increased to 99,017 in 2020, up from 78,927 the year prior, according to the study performed by researchers with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

While 74,408 Americans ages 16 to 64 died of alcohol-related causes, 74,075 individuals under 65 died of Covid-19, the study found. The rate of increase for alcohol-related deaths in 2020 (25 percent) was greater than the rate of increase of deaths from all causes (16.6 percent).

This is in addition to 93,331 drug overdose deaths that the CDC reported for 2020 almost all of which were in the same age demographic.

That was 30% higher than in 2019.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20210714.htm

Therefore, government data shows there were more than 160,000 deaths from drugs and alcohol in Americans under age 65 compared to 74,000 Covid deaths in 2020.

It will be awhile before we know the complete numbers for  2021 but I fear it may be worse.

Looking at the data, which is the larger public health crisis?

However, Tony Fauci and the CDC were spending all of their time arguing that people needed to be locked down, masked and vaccinated from Covid while completely ignoring any and all adverse effects of their policies.

Did they do anything to attempt to address this problem?

Despite the fact that the data has consistently shown that those under the age of 65 (most particularly those under age 50) had very minimal risk from Covid, the greatest burden of the Covid policies were placed on the working age population and children.

The argument was that while these groups might have lower risks from Covid, the lockdowns, mandates and all the rest were necessary to protect more vulnerable family members and the society at large.

Covid was a societal problem that transcended the individual and potentially affected others so government has to intervene for the greater good.

However, what I find interesting is that these are the same arguments made by the Temperance movement that led to Prohibition in the early years of the 20th century.

The argument for banning alcohol was not primarily based on protecting the drunkard. It was based on the adverse effects that alcohol had on society at large. It contributed to domestic issues, broken homes, child neglect and abuse, poor health, crime, debauchery and degeneracy. The argument was that by eliminating alcohol society would be improved substantially.

Of course, history shows that Prohibition was an utter failure.

It was found to cause more unintended consequences and adverse effects than alcohol did alone.

If our "public health experts" were truly concerned about the society at large, and considering Covid deaths compared to drug and alcohol deaths, why aren't they advocating a return to Prohibition?

Why do many of our politicians want to liberalize drug laws?

Does anyone dispute the immense harms to society from drug and alcohol abuse that goes well beyond the deaths shown above?

The list of harms would closely resemble those that led to Prohibition.

Prohibition 100 years ago required a constitutional amendment which necessitated votes of 2/3 of the members of both the U.S House and U.S. Senate and ratification by the legislatures of 3/4 of the states.

In the meantime, our public health experts and politicians have instituted their own Prohibition (lockdowns, mandates, edicts) over the last two years almost totally through emergency powers and bureaucratic actions.

There has been almost no legislative approval for anything that has been done at the federal or state levels.

At times it is hard to comprehend the disconnect between facts and reality and logic and reason in almost every aspect of public policy today.

Did something happen to the U.S. Constitution?

It seems that those who are supposed to be bound by it have just decided to ignore it.