#prohibition

Nothing optional—from homosexuality to adultery—is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishments) have a repressed desire to participate. As Shakespeare put it in King Lear, the policeman who lashes the whore has a hot need to use her for the very offense for which he plies the lash. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#closeted #homosexuality #hypocrisy #prohibition #religion

Drug prohibition has caused gang warfare and other violent crimes by raising the prices of drugs so much that vicious criminals enter the market to make astronomical profits, and addicts rob and steal to get money to pay the inflated prices for their drugs. ↗

— Michael Badnarik

#caused #crimes #criminals #enter #gang

We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation. ↗

— William Hazlitt

#find #many #only #prohibition #temptation

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble. ↗

— Al Capone

#nothing #prohibition #trouble

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. ↗

— W. C. Fields

#days #during #forced #i #live

Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth. ↗

— Will Rogers

#anybody #anything #colleges #constitutional #constitutional amendment

Just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states repealing their own prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws. ↗

— George Soros

#began #individual #initiative #just #laws

If you should see any Indians you will oblige me by repeating this prohibition to them. ↗

— Benjamin Hawkins

#indians #me #oblige #prohibition #repeating

The accession of not one but three illegal drug users in a row to the US presidency constitutes an existential challenge to the prohibitionist regime. The fact that some of the most successful people of our time, be it in business, finances, politics, entertainment or the arts, are current or former substance users is a fundamental refutation of its premises and a stinging rebuttal of its rationale. A criminal law that is broken at least once by 50% of the adult population and that is broken on a regular basis by 20% of the same adult population is a broken law, a fatally flawed law. How can a democratic government justify a law that is consistently broken by a substantial minority of the population? What we are witnessing here is a massive case of civil disobedience not seen since alcohol prohibition in the 1930 in the US. On what basis can a democratic system justify the stigmatization and discrimination of a strong minority of as much as 20% of its population? ↗

— Jeffrey Dhywood

#bill-clinton #drug-policy-reform #g-w-bush #prohibitionism #war-on-drugs

A different day. – Even if the experiment of Biblical times supported the argument that it is the abuse of light wines and beer, not their use, which is reprehensible, we must remember that we are dealing with a modern problem. In the time of Jesus in Palestine filth that is now disposed of through modern sewerage systems was tossed from the windows into the street. Shallow wells spread disease, and water was considered positively dangerous, as it to-day in some countries where similar social conditions exist. It may be that to run the risk of typhoid by drinking water contaminated by filth; but to-day in America pure water may be had in abundance.(1926) ↗

— Deets Pickett

#experience