The first episode of season 2 of The Making of the Mob was on the other night, and looks like it will be about the Chicago mob -- season 1 was about the NY mob. Anyway, that episode contained some interesting tidbits about Al Capone. But it ended as Capone and his mentor bought a brewery after alcohol prohibition commenced.
Most of us know some or all of the story already, and one unfortunate part of the history of prohibition repeated itself the other day. Seems that several people collapsed around the same time after consuming some synthetic marijuana. See 33 people suspected of overdosing on synthetic marijuana over 11-hour period in Brooklyn.
Did that remind anyone of bathtub gin? According to the legend, entrepreneurs attempted making alcohol at home. The name suggests it was gin made in the bathtub. At any rate, according to the legend, it not only tasted bad, it sometimes caused blindness or death.
The small lesson should be that people shouldn't experiment with stuff like that. But the bigger lesson is that if you prohibit something people want, many will seek a way around it in spite of the risk to their health.
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