Article

2009-03-15 India-Pakistan

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Posted by Fred 2009-03-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 Alcohol is banned for Pakistanis. So this looks like it was homebrew tainted with methyl.

Posted by Radio Gwadar 2009-03-15 02:41|| 2009-03-15 02:41|| Front Page Top

#2 It's always tainted homebrew over there, from what I can gather. It seems Pakistani Muslims crave alcohol in whatever form they can get -- fine whiskeys for the generals, homebrew for the commoners.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-03-15 08:51|| 2009-03-15 08:51|| Front Page Top

#3 Don't laugh at pakistan.

Just like their alcohol prohibition, drug prohibition in the west causes plenty of people to be harmed by badly done organic chemistry.

Posted by Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-03-15 12:17|| 2009-03-15 12:17|| Front Page Top

#4 Bright Pebbles:

Warning: Long rant, with trimmings.

The reason for Prohibition was to reduce crime. The Women's Christian Temperance Union was the first organization in the world to address domestic violence, and they made the connection between drinking, drug use, and domestic abuse. They also pointed out how many families were destitute because Dad spent his paycheck at the bar. Prohibition did make a positive difference for many families.

Domestic crime cases and violent assaults dropped dramatically during Prohibition. Of course, that's one little detail that certain people aren't interested in discussing.

"Since Roosevelt's been elected,
Moonshine Liquor's been corrected;
We have real whiskey, brandy, wine and gin!"

I was in my teens when some bleeding hearts claimed that we shouldn't incarcerate drug users; we should go after the pushers.

Of course, drug use skyrocketed because there weren't any real penalties. Decriminalizing drug use created the monster market for drugs and all the crime that goes with it.

I often helped pick up the pieces for my neighbors' kids when their parents have been too stoned to care for the kids. Drug use is like drunk driving. It kills. It destroys families. And we let it happen by not cutting it off at the roots--the user.

If you think these kids would be better off with legal drugs, try explaining it to them when their mom's in detox for the umpteenth time.

"Legalize drugs."
Yeah, right (spit).

Posted by mom">mom 2009-03-15 15:27|| 2009-03-15 15:27|| Front Page Top

#5 Don't laugh at pakistan.

I don't laugh, Bright Pebbles. My understanding of alcohol sales and consumption is that so long as the society is relatively lawless or, in the modern American formulation, "libertarian", the situation is very much caveat emptor, "let the buyer beware". It was not, for instance, until the passage of The Sale of Food and Drugs Act by the British Parliament around 1870 that the alcohol served in pubs could be guaranteed not to be more or less poisonous along the lines of the article above, and the flour unadulterated by sawdust or allum.... and in America a bit later, I believe. There are some areas for which the weight of government regulation and supervision are a very good thing.

Posted by trailing wife 2009-03-15 17:24|| 2009-03-15 17:24|| Front Page Top

#6 The reason for Prohibition caused the mafia.

EPIC FAIL.

Posted by Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-03-15 18:42|| 2009-03-15 18:42|| Front Page Top

#7 My understanding is that the mafia entered the US via New Orleans in the late 19th century when a Sicilian family emigrated there. They were established in a variety of cities, including New York, well before Prohibition.

Posted by lotp 2009-03-15 18:53|| 2009-03-15 18:53|| Front Page Top

#8 That's quite true, but prohibition gave them extreme wealth.

You are seeing the same thing in Mexico right now.

Posted by Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-03-15 19:38|| 2009-03-15 19:38|| Front Page Top

#9 Criminality was rationalized during Prohibition, like so many other forms of commercial endeavor, Bright Pebbles. American had had criminal gangs since the great immigration waves that started during the Civil War, and in the major cities like New York and Chicago they worked hand in glove with the local Party Machines. The Mafia were just the Italian version of the Irish, Black, and Jewish criminal gangs that preceded them to America's fair shores.

Posted by trailing wife 2009-03-15 19:58|| 2009-03-15 19:58|| Front Page Top

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