What Boardwalk Empire & Ken Burns' New Prohibition Doc Mean for the War on Drugs

Alcohol prohibition may have been repealed in 1933, but Americans have rarely been more intoxicated with the "noble experiment" than they are today.

Between Last Call, Daniel Okrent's best-selling 2010 book, leading clothing designers taking inspiration from jazz age fashion, a new prime-time documentary by Ken Burns, and the new, second season of HBOs critically acclaimed Boardwalk Empire, it's impossible to ignore the new interest in Prohibition. With a fixation on "classic cocktails" and faux-speakeasies, even drinking culture itself seems to be bellying up to the bar.

What's fueling this fascination and where will it end? Reason.tv talks with filmmaker Burns, author Okrent, and drug policy activist Aaron Houston of Students for Sensible Policy, who argues that "Culture and art right now are reflective of a general sentiment in this society that the war on drugs has not worked."

And that change is in air. Marijuana legalization initiatives will be on the ballot in at least two states in 2012, Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) have introduced legislation to let states decide pot's legal status, and record high levels of Americans are in favor of legalization. As Okrent tells Reason.tv, the need for excise tax revenue during the Great Depression helped make repeal of alcohol prohibition not just possible but desirable. Coupled with a sense of exhaustion at a drug war that has done little to prevent drug use, the dire financial straits of government at all levels may just spell the demise of contemporary prohibition.

Approx. 5 minutes. Written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, who also narrates. Additional camera work by Jim Epstein and Anthony Fisher.

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Comments

[toaster oven]

I blame hipsters.

[Hazel Meade]

And you would be correct.

Actually I think this whole thing got started from the Burlesque/Vaudeville thing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's good to see Daniel Okrent make a comeback after losing his crew and the Starship Constellation to the planet killer.

I haven't started the second season off Boardwalk Empire yet, but the first season certainly grew on me. As far as marijuana legalization, it sure seems like it's still a long way off.

[Episiarch]

after losing his crew and the Starship Constellation to the planet killer

No, no. Tulpa is Commodore Decker.

Second season of BE is off to a good start, too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You mean you're the lunatic who's responsible for almost destroying my joke?

[Episiarch]

Probably.

[Nicolas Martin]

Thomas Szasz has asked: Can government "legalize"? His answer is no; it make make things illegal, but in a free society it cannot legalize. The term is serf-talk.

[AHEM]

That which is not permitted is forbidden.

[Robert]

If you make something illegal legal, you legalize it. Nothing hard about that concept.

[Clevelandite]

Isn't the "fixation on 'classic cocktails'" a Mad Men thing?

[Mike Laursen]

No, classic tail.

[ramon]

AS usual, Rik Burns gets things all twisted - the Untouchables (a Desilu Production!) was NOT primarily about
the evils of liquor - it was about the evils of evil gangsters, who happened to deal in bootlegging, along with practically every other money-making felony you can name. And Prohibition
ended because the public demanded it - additional tax revenues was a secondary consideration.

[WWNGD?]

Be glad Ken Burns didn't somehow work racism into it.

[shut the fuck up]

"the Untouchables (a Desilu Production!) was NOT primarily about
the evils of liquor - it was about the evils of evil gangsters, who happened to deal in bootlegging"

NO, actually, you fucking idiot, it wasn't.

[Robert]

Yes, it was. Maybe the book had a different focus, maybe the subsequent movie too, I wouldn't know. But the TV show was about gangsters, period. They were said to be involved in all sorts of criminal activity, and the type of criminal activity they were involved in to make money wasn't a major focus of the show. It was mostly about their violence against various people, especially each other.

[Grammar Nazi]

Nick, there's something wrong with the title of this post. How you choose to fix it is your decision.

[steve]

It's redundant?

[shut the fuck up]

no there isn't

[Grammar Nazi]

Nick, there's something wrong with the title of this post. How you choose to fix it is your decision.

[shut the fuck up]

no there isn't

[?]

the dire financial straits of government at all levels may just spell the demise of contemporary prohibition.

It won't, but that's a nice idea, and there's a "prohibition as voter luxury good/governmental 'status attainment'" thesis in it for some pseudo-libertarian econ chooch.

Markets in everything!

[Hazel Meade]

I don't think fascination is with prohibition per se, it's part of a retro-1920s fashion thing that's going on.

Has more to do with viewing our current economic calamities through the lens of the roaring 20s, the 1929 crash, and the Depression than with prohibition, alcohol or drugs. The prohibition thing just add that dash of 20s gangsters and bootlegging that makes ti mpore colorful.

Plus it's an excuse to put on your flapper dress and a feathered headband and pretend you can do the Charlston.

[jordan]

Also interesting is the fact that, in those days, people saw a need to actually amend the Constitution when establishing sweeping laws that affect the behavior and choices of the entire populace.

There was a sense that prohibition was not Constitutional without an amendment. These days, we accept all manner of banning, restriction and requirement without considering that perhaps amending the Constitution might be required to make them legal.

[Koan]

Marijuana is legalized in one state by 2015. Medical Marijuana is available in at least 20 states by 2020. By this time, about a half dozen other states move to legalize, following the example of the first state. Serious legal issues arise, and the whole issue goes through the courts for a few years. Finally, sometime in the 2020's (probably closer to 2030) Congress relaxes penalties, leading to federal decriminalization.