A little Wine for stomach’s sake

As St. Paul had advised his disciple Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake, there are people whose health conditions require a small dose of alcohol a day.

In the dry State of Mizoram, where a total prohibition of liquor was enforced from 1996 at the behest of the powerful church, the excise and the narcotic department issued ‘red cards’ to those who require moderate drinks on health grounds based on Doctor’s prescription.

According to Excise sources, there are 2231 red card holders, including the ex-servicemen in Mizoram. While the civilian purchase their dose of liquor from the excise police’s departmental store, the ex-servicemen get theirs from the CSD canteens.

“Based on doctor’s prescription we just issued the red cards to the civilians. We do not set any criteria” an excise official said.

LIQUOR PROHIBITION IN SOME COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.

Prohibition in the United States

Main article: Prohibition in the United States

Prohibition in the United States was a major reform movement sponsored by evangelical Protestant churches, especially the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples and Congregationalists from the 1840s into the 1920s. Kansas and Maine were early adopters. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, and the Prohibition Party were major players until the early 20th century, when the movement was taken over by the Anti-Saloon League. By using pressure politics on legislators, the Anti-Saloon League achieved the goal of nationwide prohibition during World War I, emphasizing the need to destroy the political corruption of the saloons, the political power of the German-based brewing industry, and the need to reduce domestic violence in the home.

Prohibition was instituted with ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on January 16, 1919, which prohibited the "...manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States..." Congress passed the "Volstead Act" on October 28, 1919, to enforce the law, but most large cities were uninterested in enforcing the legislation, leaving an understaffed federal service to go after bootleggers. Although alcohol consumption did decline, there was a dramatic rise in organized crime in the larger cities, which now had a cash crop that was in high demand.

Prohibition became increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression, as the repeal movement, led by conservative Democrats and Catholics, emphasized that repeal would generate enormous sums of much needed tax revenue, and weaken the base of organized crime. In 1933 the Prohibition amendment to the Constitution was repealed, allowing the states to set their own laws. The organized Prohibition movement was dead nationwide, but survived for a while in a few southern and border states

Prohibition in Mexico

Zapatista Communities will often ban alcohol as part of a collective decision. This has been used by many villages as a way to decrease domestic violence and has generally been favored by women. However, this is not recognized by federal Mexican law as the Zapatista movement is strongly opposed by the federal government.

Prescription form for medicinal liquor

The sale and purchase of alcohol is prohibited on and the night before certain national holidays, such as Natalicio de Benito Juárez (birthdate of Benito Juárez) and Día de la Revolución, which are meant to be dry nationally. The same "dry law" applies to the days before presidential elections every six years.

Finland

Alcohol abuse had a long history, especially regarding binge drinking and public intoxication, which became a crime in 1733. In the 19th century the punishments became stiffer and stiffer, but the problem persisted. A strong total abstinence movement emerged that cut consumption in half from the 1880s to the 1910s, and gave Finland the lowest drinking rate in Europe. Four attempts at instituting prohibition during early 20th century were rejected by the czar; with the czar gone Finland enacted prohibition in 1919. Smuggling emerged and enforcement was slipshod. Criminal convictions for drunkenness went up by 500%, and violence and crime rates soared. Public opinion turned against the law, and a national plebiscite went 70% for repeal, so prohibition was ended in early 1932.

United Kingdom 

While the sale or consumption of commercial alcohol was never prohibited, throughout the first half of the twentieth century, home brewing was circumscribed by taxation and prohibition, largely due to lobbying by large breweries that wished to stamp out the practice. One of the earliest, modern attempts to regulate private production that affected this era was the Inland Revenue Act of 1880 in the United Kingdom, which required homebrewers to obtain a licence at a price of 5 shillings.

The Bournville Village Trust, an area of land which covers parts of the Birmingham suburbs of Bournville, Selly Oak and Northfield has been 'dry'