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Neo-Prohibitionism and Neo-Prohibitionists

Neo-prohibitionism  (also spelled neoprohibitionism and neo-Prohibitionism) is the belief that the per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages should be reduced by legislation that further restricts its sale and consumption and also by changing social norms to reduce the acceptability of drinking.

Neo-prohibitionists tend to assume that

These beliefs lead to the call for such measures as:

Neo-Prohibitionists tend to place primary responsibility on the cultural environment rather than the drinker for alcohol abuse. The analogy is that we don’t blame fish for dying in a polluted stream.  The belief that the environment is polluted with ads for alcohol, positive attitudes toward alcohol, the availability of alcohol, and the social acceptability of drinking.

An example is the assertion of Joseph Califano, head of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, that “The mother of abuse is availability.” That view is consistent with temperance beliefs over 100 years ago. For example, a rural coroner in Indiana, in rendering an official cause of death of a man killed by a train in the 1890s recorded that if the man “had not been drunk, he would not have ;;;been killed,” and that “if there had been no saloons to tempt him, he would not have been drunk.” His official conclusion was that in the matter of the man’s death, the voters of the state and the state legislature were equally guilty. i

Because prohibition in the United States and elsewhere has been a dramatically  unsuccessful experiment in the past and is unpopular today, there are no major organizations in the United States that claim to be neo-prohibitionist, although individuals occasionally do.

The concept and promotion of neo-prohibitionism has been studied  by scholars at George Mason University, ii Auburn University, iii Ohio State University, iv Brown University, v Indiana University, vi the University of Houston, vii the University of Western Ontario, viii the State University of New York at Potsdam, ix the University of California at San Diego, x Washington University, xi   the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, xii   Kean College xiii and others, although it is usually used by critics (who may or may not be academics) to describe groups or individuals.

The neo-prohibitionist perspective has wide support in many countries around the world although much scientific research evidence is inconsistent with its assumptions and recommendations.

 

References:
  • i. Clark, Norman H.  Deliver Us from Evil: an Interpretation of American Prohibition. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1976, p. 79.
  • ii. iliberty.org/debates/id.3271/debates_detail.asp+%22Institute+for+Humane+
    Studies+at+George+Mason+University%22+%22Drunk+Driving+Laws
    %22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
  • iii. mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae7_1_7.pdf+neo+prohibitionism&hl=en&gl=us&
    ct=clnk&cd=14
  • iv. Pennock, Pamela E. and Kerr, K. Austin. “In the Shadow of Prohibition: American
    Domestic Alcohol Policy Since 1933,” Business History 47 (July 2005): 383-400.
  • v. Heath, Dwight, B. The new temperance movement: Through the looking glass. Drugs and Society, 1989, 3, 143-168, and amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1583910476?v=glance],   
  • vi. indiana.edu/~engs/articles/clean.html+Engs+neo-
    prohibition&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2] and[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11837847.html
  • vii. Lender, Mark E. and Martin, James K. Drinking in America: A History. NY: Free Press and London: Collier Macmillan, 1987.
  • viii. Blocker, Jack S. Alcohol, Reform and Society. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979.
  • ix. http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1044534810.html
  • x. Gusfield, Joseph R. Alcohol Problems—An Interactionist View. In: von Wartburg, Jean- Pierre, Magnenat, Pierre, Muller, Richard, and Wyss, Sonja (eds.) Currents in Alcohol Research and the Prevention of Alcohol Problems—Proceedings of an International Symposium Held in Lausanne, Switzerland, November 7-9, 1983. Berne, Switzerland: Hans Huber Publishers, 1985. pp. 71-81; Gusfield, Joseph R., Contested Meanings: The Construction of Alcohol Problems, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.
  • xi. Pittman, David J., "The New Temperance Movement," pp. 775-790 in David J. Pittman and Helene Raskin White (eds.), Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns Reexamined, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1992.
  • xii. Beauchamp, Dan E. Alcohol-Abuse Prevention Through Beverage and Environmental Regulation: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going. In: Holder, Harold D, (ed.) Advances in Substance Abuse: Behavioral and Biological Research Supplement 1, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1987. pp. 53-63.
  • xiii. Lender, Mark E. and Martin, James K. Drinking in America: A History. NY: Free Press and London: Collier Macmillan, 1987.

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