Did Doctors Really Prescribe Alcohol During Prohibition?

Doctors prescribed alcohol for centuries before modern medicine taught us its dangers, but this practice was really profitible during Prohibition. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/ridiculous-history-when-doctors-prescribed-alcohol-during-prohibition.htm

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren vogebam here with artisanal cocktails, craft micro brews, and
mile long wine menus just about every restaurant and bar
from coast to coast. It's hard to imagine an alcohol
free era in America, but for thirteen years, the National

(00:22):
Prohibition Act otherwise known as the Volstead Act, banned recreational
drinking and the manufacturer, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors
in the United States. And while bootleggers and speakeasy operators
found ways to sneakily sell booze despite the law, in
the nineteen twenties and early thirties, one unlikely group legally

(00:43):
provided easy access to alcohol. Doctors. You may not think
of your friendly neighborhood and medical office as the most
likely makeshift liquor store, but for a time in America,
physicians were able to escape the law and make a
few bucks on the side of For the article, this
episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke Karen Blumenthal,

(01:04):
author of the book Bootleg, Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless
Years of Prohibition. She explained doctors had long prescribed alcohol
as medicine, but it became a thriving business during Prohibition.
It's true alcohol had been widely used throughout history to
treat an array of medical conditions, though it eventually fell
out of favor with doctors, and by nineteen seventeen, the

(01:26):
American Medical Association or a m A, voted to support
the prohibition of alcohol across the country. But by nineteen
twenty two, just two years after the Volstad Act went
into effect, a national a m A survey called Referendum
on the Use of Alcohol in the Medical Profession revealed
some interesting developments. Suddenly American doctors believed alcohol was a

(01:48):
useful treatment for twenty seven separate medical conditions, including everything
from diabetes and cancer to snake bites and lactation problems.
How Stuff Works also spoke with Garrett Peck, author of
the Prohibition hangover Alcohol in America From demon Rum to
cult Cabvernet. He said medicinal alcohol was a popular loophole

(02:09):
in the Volstead Act, the prohibition enforcement law. Before Prohibition,
doctors widely recognized that alcohol is not medicine, but during Prohibition,
the m A changed its opinion, in part because patients
still wanted to drink, even though the a m A
Had previously declared that alcohol had no scientific value. The U. S.
Treasury Department authorized doctors to write prescriptions for alcohol. Peck

(02:34):
said doctors were given prescription forms to prescribe medicinal whiskey
at pharmacies. This was widely abused, as the forms were
often copied and much more whiskey was released from bond
than the federal government ever intended. Blumenthal said doctors did
it for sure, but pharmacists and others also sold bogus

(02:54):
prescription forms. Many people never went to a doctor. They
went to the pharmacist, who could provide a prescription form
and deliver the prescription. In fact, historians have suspicions about
one famous pharmacist, Charles Walgreen, whose Walgreen's chain expanded from
twenty stores to five hundred and twenty five during the
nineteen twenties. Many credited the founder's introduction of the milkshake

(03:16):
for the chain success, but as Charles Walgreen Jr. Later
Told an interviewer, while his father was worried about the
danger of fires in his stores, he quote wanted the
fire department to get in as fast as possible and
get out as fast as possible, because whenever they came
in would always lose a case of liquor from the back.
How Stuff Works. Also spoke with Daniel Okrant, author of

(03:38):
Last Call, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. He said
the prescription exemption was eagerly sought by the same physicians who,
in the walk up to the eighteenth Amendment had officially
through the A. M A argued that there was no
real medical use for liquor. What they realized as the
Volstad Act was being drafted was the opportunity to take
advantage of it, and doctors and pharmacists weren't the only

(04:00):
ones able to circumvent the law of Farmers were allowed
to produce wine for their own consumption, and religious leaders,
including priests and rabbis, were allowed to serve it during
services and ceremonies, but physicians were the ones who stood
to make a profit. Okrant said any doctor could give
a patient a prescription of a pint of whiskey or
other alcohol every ten days. In most cities, three dollars

(04:22):
was the going price for the prescription, and a similar
amount was paid to the pharmacist who filled it. And
of course others found ways to turn a profit on
the restricted substance. During Prohibition two, the National Archives notes
that New York City by itself boasted between thirty thousand
and a hundred thousand speakeasies in a peck, said George Remus,

(04:45):
the man who inspired the Great Gatsby, figured out that
medicinal whiskey was a great business model. He bought up
a bunch of distilleries which had rick houses full of
whiskey that couldn't be sold, then bought up pharmacies to
distribute the whiskey. He then bribed federal official to allow
a lot more whiskey to seep out of his rick houses.
Remus made a fortune in a short period of time,

(05:06):
and although some opportunistic alcohol pushers did in fact get
reprimanded for crossing legal lines, the end of the thirteen
year band put an end to most litigation against perpetrators.
My House to Works also spoke with Phil Roberts, a
University of Wyoming history professor, who said one of the
last people in Wyoming charged with violating the prohibition law

(05:26):
was a medical doctor. Oddly, he was charged the very
day before Wyoming's constitutional convention meant to vote on repeal
of the Eighteenth Amendment. Later, the charges against the doctor
were dismissed. Today's episode is based on the article Ridiculous
History when doctors prescribed alcohol during Prohibition on House to

(05:49):
works dot com, written by Michelle Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is
production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
works dot com and it's produced by Tyler Playing four
more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit their heart rate
you app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. H