Daniel Okrent has book out on Prohibition and was on The Daily Show the other night. George will has an op-ed that uses some of the information from the book.

Another round of Prohibition, anyone?

[B]y 1830, adult per capita consumption was the equivalent of 90 bottles of 80-proof liquor annually.

Although whiskey often was a safer drink than water, Americans, particularly men, drank too much. Women’s Prohibition sentiments fueled the movement for women’s rights — rights to hold property independent of drunken husbands; to divorce those husbands; to vote for politicians who would close saloons. So the United States Brewers’ Association officially opposed women’s suffrage.

(George still writes well, as long as the topic isn’t global warming.)

Okrent mentions the parallel to marijuana in the interview, though the op-ed doesn’t go there.