around campus
ASL gets sneak peek of ‘Prohibition’ Panelists debate effectiveness of today’s war on drugs
B
lue Ridge PBS and ASL teamed up in October in a com- that comparison. The modern war on drugs isn’t working, just munity forum to provide a preview of Ken Burns’ “Pro- as Prohibition didn’t work, he said. hibition,” a three-part documentary that premiered later The war on drugs creates an incentive for kids to become that month. dealers, promotes violence, distracts police officers from “It’s a great privilege to be here,” said Katherine Foreman of protecting the public, and costs an astronomical amount to Blue Ridge PBS. “Anytime a Ken Burns documentary comes to perpetuate, he said. TV, it’s a big deal for us.” ASL’s was the only event that was actu“We’re not in a war on drugs,” he said. “We’re at war with ally screening parts of the film, ourselves.” she said. Drugs continue to be widely ASL was chosen partially available because dealers accept because of its location in a rethe possibility of death or prison, gion that became a center for and “saving people from putting moonshining during the Prohisomething in their body that bition era. harms only themselves” wastes After an excerpt from the resources, he said. documentary, Professor Stewart Former Buchanan County Harris introduced a panel disCommonwealth’s Attorney cussion on prohibition, then and Tamara Neo disagreed. “We are now, by noting some of the paying the bill when people abuse issue’s constitutional aspects. drugs,” she said, noting that drugs Though Prohibition is considoften go hand in hand with vioered a dead issue, it has plenty of lence. She noted that Buchanan historical interest. Alcohol beCounty struggles most with precame “the only drug with its scription drug abuse. own amendments,” so it’s still While honest families may worth studying, he said. have sold moonshine in the past, Harris said that interest the same doesn’t hold today with groups were able to harness the drugs, she said. “The big fish use power of the Reformist Era to addicts to sell drugs they don’t do make Prohibition possible. Ultithemselves” to make money withmately, though, the amendment out putting themselves in harm’s was repealed because outlawing way, she said. alcohol was expensive, led to “Seeing as many overdoses as crime and corruption, and enI see,” it’s safe to say drug abuse is couraged a more intrusive federal far more destructive than moongovernment. shining ever was, she said. Carl Mullins, a historian While the idea of legalizing with Breaks Interstate Park, drugs so that only drug abusers “knew a lot of families that surare harmed seems like the libertarvived on account of moonian ideal, it assumes a “utopia that shine,” especially during the probably can never exist,” she Neo Wooldridge Mullins Great Depression, he said. “They said. “There needs to be a cultural were hard-working, honest people who never touched a drop in change.” their lives.” Wooldridge said alcohol and tobacco, which are both legal Prohibition was responsible for the “complete devastation” but regulated, cause far more deaths than drugs would if legalof many families in the region, he said, because organized crime ized. The idea that legalization of drugs would cause an explotook over production of moonshine, and quality of the alcohol sion of users is a myth, he said. “The thin blue line is thin and getting thinner,” he said. plummeted. “It caused more problems than it ever cured.” “Officers aren’t chasing pedophiles – they’re in helicopters Howard Wooldridge, a former police officer and colooking for a green plant.” n founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, agreed with 4
n
the Current