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MOONSHINE IN AMERICA
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Bootlegging in America is still alive and well. Whereas we all pay attention to the smuggling of illegal drugs ranging from Marijuana to Methamphetamine, there is still big money in smuggling illegal moonshine or alcohol. Alcohol is still one of the most controlled substances in the country. More than dynamite or blasting caps, alcohol remains in the “Top 10” of legally controlled substances in the United States.
Jim, who is an investigator for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, tells us, “The dangers of allowing alcohol to flow freely from state to state or even within the state are great.” He went on to say, “The problem with ‘home brew’ booze is the potential for poisoning which can cause stroke, blindness, or even death. Last year we had over 4,500 people hospitalized due to poisoning from home brew or ‘bootleg’ whiskey.”
It is estimated that the demand for alcoholic beverages of all kinds has risen nearly 30% since 2011. In 2019 sales topped $250 Billion dollars. This is a heavily licensed and controlled but easily accessed product. The ‘side effect’ of alcohol on society is more than 95,000 deaths annually.
A new and alarming trend is alcohol abuse among the young. Of youth aged 12 to 17, 414,000 drink alcohol to abuse. In 2019 nearly 200,000 young people in this age group were hospitalized due to alcohol abuse. The reasons for hospitalization ranged from alcohol poisoning to traffic accidents and slip-and fall injuries. Of these, nearly 20,000 arrests were made involving youth 12 to 17 involving criminal activity and violent activity.
All of this is just what we see with ‘legal’ alcohol consumption. The shadowy world of ‘bootlegging’ is yet another matter. Gone are the days of carrying booze in fruit jars in the back of a pickup truck. Gone are the days where ‘Jimmy Jo’ bought a couple of jars of moonshine for the weekend. Today the problem is with ‘counterfeit’ booze.
Whiskies and alcoholic beverages are being counterfeited. Recently a truck loaded with 5 tons of ‘fake’ Jack Daniels Whiskey was seized in Maryland. The sale of this product would afford the moonshiners a profit margin of around 900%, which is a higher margin than marijuana or cocaine.
While legal alcohol has brought us far more woes than we could have imagined, the sad issues connected with ‘moonshine’ are frightening! In 2019 illegal booze was responsible for over 100,000 deaths, 150,000 debilitating injuries, and over 85,000 hospitalizations. The impurities and the very nature of this alcohol are harmful to the body, soul, and mind.
We need tighter controls over alcohol in all forms, illegal or legal, and until this can be done we are going to fact the continued and rising combined annual death toll of 145,000 and a cost of over $3 Billion Dollars. This report does not take into account the costs of rehabilitation, lost wages, lost production, insurance payouts, and personal loss. The figures for these are not readily available but, whatever they are, it’s a certainty they are astronomical.
I’m Max, and that’s the way I see it!
A Production of Max Allen Media®
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