From prohibition to regulation: lessons from alcohol policy for drug policy

Like current drug prohibition, alcohol prohibition in the 1920s produced a large criminalized industry. Post-repeal alcohol regulation, which tended to limit overall consumption, suggests that the legal regulated sale of currently illicit substances is technically practical and reasonable. However, no such radical change in drug policy will be politically feasible until well into the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, the failures and costs of the War on Drugs make moderate reform a more promising prospect.