Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogebam here with artisanal cocktails, craft micro brews, and
Speaker 1: mile long wine menus just about every restaurant and bar
Speaker 1: from coast to coast. It's hard to imagine an alcohol
Speaker 1: free era in America, but for thirteen years, the National
Speaker 1: Prohibition Act otherwise known as the Volstead Act, banned recreational
Speaker 1: drinking and the manufacturer, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors
Speaker 1: in the United States. And while bootleggers and speakeasy operators
Speaker 1: found ways to sneakily sell booze despite the law, in
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties and early thirties, one unlikely group legally
Speaker 1: provided easy access to alcohol. Doctors. You may not think
Speaker 1: of your friendly neighborhood and medical office as the most
Speaker 1: likely makeshift liquor store, but for a time in America,
Speaker 1: physicians were able to escape the law and make a
Speaker 1: few bucks on the side of For the article, this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke Karen Blumenthal,
Speaker 1: author of the book Bootleg, Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless
Speaker 1: Years of Prohibition. She explained doctors had long prescribed alcohol
Speaker 1: as medicine, but it became a thriving business during Prohibition.
Speaker 1: It's true alcohol had been widely used throughout history to
Speaker 1: treat an array of medical conditions, though it eventually fell
Speaker 1: out of favor with doctors, and by nineteen seventeen, the
Speaker 1: American Medical Association or a m A, voted to support
Speaker 1: the prohibition of alcohol across the country. But by nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, just two years after the Volstad Act went
Speaker 1: into effect, a national a m A survey called Referendum
Speaker 1: on the Use of Alcohol in the Medical Profession revealed
Speaker 1: some interesting developments. Suddenly American doctors believed alcohol was a
Speaker 1: useful treatment for twenty seven separate medical conditions, including everything
Speaker 1: from diabetes and cancer to snake bites and lactation problems.
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works also spoke with Garrett Peck, author of
Speaker 1: the Prohibition hangover Alcohol in America From demon Rum to
Speaker 1: cult Cabvernet. He said medicinal alcohol was a popular loophole
Speaker 1: in the Volstead Act, the prohibition enforcement law. Before Prohibition,
Speaker 1: doctors widely recognized that alcohol is not medicine, but during Prohibition,
Speaker 1: the m A changed its opinion, in part because patients
Speaker 1: still wanted to drink, even though the a m A
Speaker 1: Had previously declared that alcohol had no scientific value. The U. S.
Speaker 1: Treasury Department authorized doctors to write prescriptions for alcohol. Peck
Speaker 1: said doctors were given prescription forms to prescribe medicinal whiskey
Speaker 1: at pharmacies. This was widely abused, as the forms were
Speaker 1: often copied and much more whiskey was released from bond
Speaker 1: than the federal government ever intended. Blumenthal said doctors did
Speaker 1: it for sure, but pharmacists and others also sold bogus
Speaker 1: prescription forms. Many people never went to a doctor. They
Speaker 1: went to the pharmacist, who could provide a prescription form
Speaker 1: and deliver the prescription. In fact, historians have suspicions about
Speaker 1: one famous pharmacist, Charles Walgreen, whose Walgreen's chain expanded from
Speaker 1: twenty stores to five hundred and twenty five during the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. Many credited the founder's introduction of the milkshake
Speaker 1: for the chain success, but as Charles Walgreen Jr. Later
Speaker 1: Told an interviewer, while his father was worried about the
Speaker 1: danger of fires in his stores, he quote wanted the
Speaker 1: fire department to get in as fast as possible and
Speaker 1: get out as fast as possible, because whenever they came
Speaker 1: in would always lose a case of liquor from the back.
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Also spoke with Daniel Okrant, author of
Speaker 1: Last Call, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. He said
Speaker 1: the prescription exemption was eagerly sought by the same physicians who,
Speaker 1: in the walk up to the eighteenth Amendment had officially
Speaker 1: through the A. M A argued that there was no
Speaker 1: real medical use for liquor. What they realized as the
Speaker 1: Volstad Act was being drafted was the opportunity to take
Speaker 1: advantage of it, and doctors and pharmacists weren't the only
Speaker 1: ones able to circumvent the law of Farmers were allowed
Speaker 1: to produce wine for their own consumption, and religious leaders,
Speaker 1: including priests and rabbis, were allowed to serve it during
Speaker 1: services and ceremonies, but physicians were the ones who stood
Speaker 1: to make a profit. Okrant said any doctor could give
Speaker 1: a patient a prescription of a pint of whiskey or
Speaker 1: other alcohol every ten days. In most cities, three dollars
Speaker 1: was the going price for the prescription, and a similar
Speaker 1: amount was paid to the pharmacist who filled it. And
Speaker 1: of course others found ways to turn a profit on
Speaker 1: the restricted substance. During Prohibition two, the National Archives notes
Speaker 1: that New York City by itself boasted between thirty thousand
Speaker 1: and a hundred thousand speakeasies in a peck, said George Remus,
Speaker 1: the man who inspired the Great Gatsby, figured out that
Speaker 1: medicinal whiskey was a great business model. He bought up
Speaker 1: a bunch of distilleries which had rick houses full of
Speaker 1: whiskey that couldn't be sold, then bought up pharmacies to
Speaker 1: distribute the whiskey. He then bribed federal official to allow
Speaker 1: a lot more whiskey to seep out of his rick houses.
Speaker 1: Remus made a fortune in a short period of time,
Speaker 1: and although some opportunistic alcohol pushers did in fact get
Speaker 1: reprimanded for crossing legal lines, the end of the thirteen
Speaker 1: year band put an end to most litigation against perpetrators.
Speaker 1: My House to Works also spoke with Phil Roberts, a
Speaker 1: University of Wyoming history professor, who said one of the
Speaker 1: last people in Wyoming charged with violating the prohibition law
Speaker 1: was a medical doctor. Oddly, he was charged the very
Speaker 1: day before Wyoming's constitutional convention meant to vote on repeal
Speaker 1: of the Eighteenth Amendment. Later, the charges against the doctor
Speaker 1: were dismissed. Today's episode is based on the article Ridiculous
Speaker 1: History when doctors prescribed alcohol during Prohibition on House to
Speaker 1: works dot com, written by Michelle Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is
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Speaker 1: works dot com and it's produced by Tyler Playing four
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