The US government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition (2010)
Report a link problem
Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
Top comments
The alcohol used as torpedo propellant was that was often used by sailors to make "torpedo juice" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_juice) so that ended up being tainted as well to render it undrinkable. That was also a severely misguided effort.
I debated this ~4 years ago on the Penn State University Parliamentary Debate team. During the practice session I tried to use this as an argument against the claimed moral high ground of the prohibitionists. It failed; our coach and the rest of the team we're able to prove to me, with a more careful reading of the article (and checks from other primary source material) that there was never a "Federal Poisoning Program" and that most of the deaths…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
HN stats
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 274
- Total comments
- 163
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-01-05 | How the government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences | hachiya | 3 | 0 |
| 2014-08-06 | How the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition (2010)First breakout | calcsam | 108 | 65 |
| 2016-09-04 | The US government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition (2010)Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | leksak | 163 | 98 |