Medicinal Spirits During Prohibition

[Briar Lee]

You might recall the old lectures about the choice between guns and butter, but during World War One the gubbermint chose guns over booze. My own grandmother went to her grave as an old, old woman convinced Prohibition was a wise policy and saved many from a drunkard’s doom and spared the families of sots from poverty and disgrace.

But the Volstead Act allowed for the bottling and sale of medical 100 proof spirts under a doctor’s prescription, for as the good book sayeth,

[6] Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. [7] Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

During Prohibition, Doctors Wrote Prescriptions for Booze

Those looking to self-medicate could score at the doctor's office.

www.atlasobscura.com

 

[greeneyes]

It is interesting, isn't it, that a substance used to treat "cancer, anxiety, and depression" in fact causes "cancer, anxiety, and depression."

 

[fireground_piper]

It is interesting, isn't it, that a substance used to treat "cancer, anxiety, and depression" in fact causes "cancer, anxiety, and depression."

And not much has changed since either.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I think the sheriffs sold most of the alcohol, back in those days. That's how it was around here anyway.

 

[OzPiper]

I am not a physiologist nor a neuro-scientist, but this is my understanding of the effects of alcohol generally

Alcohol has both excitatory and inhibitory functions depending on the amount ingested :
In small quantities it is a relaxant.
A bit more and it acts as a disinhibitant - talking volubly, arm waving, getting up and dancing on tables, being argumentative and belligerent, inappropriate behaviour
Then the depressant effect kicks in - becoming maudling/crying/weeping
Any more it becomes a soporific
Before cerebro-neural/respiratory system depression.
And finally death from acute alcoholic poisoning

It’s not what.
But how much.

 

[andrew]

I love these, they still exist to this day, just remarketed as alcohol to drink. Jaegermeister, fernet branca, unicum, etc. Pretty much any amaro was originally a tonic

 

[OzPiper]

I love these, they still exist to this day, just remarketed as alcohol to drink. Jaegermeister, fernet branca, unicum, etc. Pretty much any amaro was originally a tonic

Digestives.
Though a few eg Aperol and Campari work equally well as aperitifs in a long drink or a spritz.

 

[Briar Lee]

Many, if not most cough syrups have an ethyl alcohol base. Until it was outlawed many had cocaine or heroin as well.



Growning up, I always knew my parents kept a half pint of bourbon in the medicine cabinet. When my mother moved to town about 25 years ago we came on it.

The seal hadn’t been broken.

She looked at it, and trashed it long with other old medicines.

She said she was to old to take her first drink, and didn’t want me to pick up any more bad habits besides smoking.

Booze can be medicine.

But I suppose it works about the same way as marijuana.

 

[OzPiper]

Many, if not most cough syrups have an ethyl alcohol base.

Booze can be medicine.

I blame my love of alcohol on Woodward’s Gripe Water freely administered when I was a babe.
I remember helping myself to my sister’s bottle of that (I was 6yo)

 

[Dave760]

...
A bit more and it acts as a disinhibitant - talking volubly, arm waving, getting up and dancing on tables, being argumentative and belligerent, inappropriate behaviour
...

Nah, that's just my personality.

 

[greeneyes]

I am not a physiologist nor a neuro-scientist, but this is my understanding of the effects of alcohol generally

Alcohol has both excitatory and inhibitory functions depending on the amount ingested :
In small quantities it is a relaxant.
A bit more and it acts as a disinhibitant - talking volubly, arm waving, getting up and dancing on tables, being argumentative and belligerent, inappropriate behaviour
Then the depressant effect kicks in - becoming maudling/crying/weeping
Any more it becomes a soporific
Before cerebro-neural/respiratory system depression.
And finally death from acute alcoholic poisoning

It’s not what.
But how much.

This is true for acute ingestion, while there are generally depressive effects for chronic administration.

I imagine Winston Churchill on a speaking circuit during Prohibition Era USA (as the OP's article relates), sweating, his hands shaking, wondering where he would get his next drink just so he could function. Sounds like self-imposed torture if you ask me. This isn't a moderate drinking habit, but a round-the-clock chemical dependency.

 

[Zamora]

Some European herbal liqeuers and amaros were also legally sold in the US during prohibition on medical grounds, most famously Fernet Branca. I'm fond of it myself and I find it really calms an upset stomach.

This is true for acute ingestion, while there are generally depressive effects for chronic administration.

I imagine Winston Churchill on a speaking circuit during Prohibition Era USA (as the OP's article relates), sweating, his hands shaking, wondering where he would get his next drink just so he could function. Sounds like self-imposed torture if you ask me. This isn't a moderate drinking habit, but a round-the-clock chemical dependency.

Yeah that dude drank scotch and soda for breakfast every morning. I don't think he would've liked any of the medicinal drinks allowed, he never drank anything like that in England.

 

[OzPiper]

I imagine Winston Churchill on a speaking circuit during Prohibition Era USA (as the OP's article relates), sweating, his hands shaking, wondering where he would get his next drink just so he could function. Sounds like self-imposed torture if you ask me. This isn't a moderate drinking habit, but a round-the-clock chemical dependency.

He was particularly fond of champagne - to the tune of 3 bottles a day, so I read.
And that was for starters or when he felt like having a drink when not having a drink and as a throat gargle before retiring for the night.

Pol Roger was his favourite, and the house made sure he had a constant supply throughout WW ll.
He even named one of his race horses Pol Roger

 

[LOREN]

7-up contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug, until 1948. I've always found this fascinating, but if it is too off topic, mod please delete.

 

[OzPiper]

7-up contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug, until 1948. I've always found this fascinating, but if it is too off topic, mod please delete.

Lots of “substances” used as additives in the unregulated era.

One of my father’s favourite “medicines” was a patent Chinese concoction for an upset stomach (“Po Chai” pills) which he used with regular abandon.
Arsenic was one ingredient

 

[Zamora]

He was particularly fond of champagne - to the tune of 3 bottles a day, so I read.
And that was for starters or when he felt like having a drink when not having a drink and as a throat gargle before retiring for the night.

Pol Roger was his favourite, and the house made sure he had a constant supply throughout WW ll.
He even named one of his race horses Pol Roger

3 a day? That's nuts especially considering all the Scotch, brandy and I believe sherry he also drank. I forget how many cigars a day he smoked, but by most account he rarely finished any

 

[OzPiper]

3 a day? That's nuts especially considering all the Scotch, brandy and I believe sherry he also drank. I forget how many cigars a day he smoked, but by most account he rarely finished any

He had a prodigious capacity for alcohol.
Don’t forget the claret, burgundy and port consumed at the dinner table

His favourite vitola was the Churchill. Of course.
And named after himself.
He used to discard them after smoking 2/3rds, I believe

 

[Briar Lee]

As a side note, Winston let exaggerated stories about his alcohol consumption build his legend. Every confidante and insider wrote he tippled all day and was seldom if ever drunk.

But as for the finest Cuban cigars, his consumption was truly enormous. His servants used the butts in their pipes.

This highlights a huge difference between drinking and smoking.

Only 10% of drinkers are alcoholics.

Try smoking two cartons of cigarettes then try to quit.

 

[Zamora]

As a side note, Winston let exaggerated stories about his alcohol consumption build his legend. Every confidante and insider wrote he tippled all day and was seldom if ever drunk.

But as for the finest Cuban cigars, his consumption was truly enormous. His servants used the butts in their pipes.

This highlights a huge difference between drinking and smoking.

Only 10% of drinkers are alcoholics.

Try smoking two cartons of cigarettes then try to quit.

Apparently he was originally a cigarette smoker than switched to cigars after a stay in Cuba. Not sure how true that is but it is documented he stayed in Cuba. Then of course there's FDR who started off as a pipe smoker then for some reason switched to cigarettes

 

[greeneyes]

Yes, I find the suggestion that Churchill was an alcoholic to be somewhat laughable. Alcoholism is clearly incompatible with greatness, after all.

Scotch and sodas through the morning.
Imperial pint of champagne at lunch and brandy or cognac capper.
Nap, followed by after-nap Scotch and sodas.
Imperial pint at dinner followed by brandy and cognac again.

Looks like all-day drinking to me. Romanticize it all you want.