Claim: The U.S Government Intentionally Poisoned Alcohol to Keep People from Drinking

Question

During Prohibition, the U.S government intentionally poisoned alcohol to stop people from drinking.

Answer 1

It is said in the article below that they did poison the alcohol. They shortened the supply and added toxic additives to bootlegged alcohol. This poisoned and contaminated the alcohol that was drank by people during and after prohibition.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/30/fact-check-u-s-government-poisoned-some-alcohol-during-prohibition/3283701001/

Comments

Great answer to the claim. When fact-checking, it's also important to provide a rating, such as:

True
False
Exaggerated
Opinion (opinions can't be factchecked)
Misinformation
Likely misinformation
Likely not misinformation
Not misinformation

---

This is a good fact check, and I appreciate how you used a trustworthy source such as USA Today.

---

I like how you kept the factcheck short and to the point without muddling it with any extra unnecessary information.

Answer 2

According to this article that claim is true.

"In 1926, the federal government, in an effort to enforce the so-called 'Noble Experiment,' mandated adding poisons (including methanol) to industrial alcohol so as to discourage people from drinking it."

They chose methanol as it was cheaper and easier to come by than ethanol. This article claims bootleggers were also partly to blame as they knowingly smuggled in alcohol with methanol already mixed in. Unfortunately, this did not help decrease consumption but instead resulted in death and suffering.

On Dec. 28, 1926, Charles Norris, Chief Medical Examiner of NYC, stated " ' the government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol. It knows what the bootleggers are doing with is and yet it continues its poisoning process, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States Government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes.' "

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2972336/#:~:text=In%201926%2C%20the%20federal%20government,discourage%20people%20from%20drinking%20it.

Answer 3

In 1926, the U.S., government added poison to industrial alcohol to make people stop drinking it. But the plan didn't work. Instead, many people died from drinking the poisoned alcohol. This is a reminder that the government must protect people's lives from harmful substances.

https://catalyst.independent.org/2022/04/08/government-poisoned-americans-prohibition/

https://time.com/3665643/deadly-drinking/

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/america-heres-your-governments-war-on-alcohol-and-our-national-experiment-in-the-extermination-of-alcohol-users/

Answer 4

Evidence seems to support this claim that the U.S. government intentionally poisoned alcohol to prevent people from drinking during the prohibition. This article from USA Today has done some factchecking on the subject matter and stated, "The federal government sometimes proved willing to go to unethical lengths to prevent alcohol consumption. [They] did take steps to ensure that toxic chemicals were included in industrial alcohols".  and " Officials reasoned that by mandating toxic additives into products which would be converted to bootleg alcohol, the supply could be effectively cut before consumption". 

Many people died from alcohol consumption during this time period due to the amount of toxic substances put in the alcohol supply by the government. They felt this was an efficient way to reduce the amount of illegal alcohol consumption. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/30/fact-check-u-s-government-poisoned-some-alcohol-during-prohibition/3283701001/

Comments

How would you rate the claim? True? False?

Answer 5

Evidence points to this being true. I found in these articles more information on the government’s poisoning of alcohol. While regular drinking alcohol was not poisoned as it was banned, the government did however order poisonous chemicals to be added to industrial alcohols to prevent them being stolen by bootleggers and drank as liquor. Not misinformation.

“Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking.”

https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/the-little-told-story-of-how-the-u-s-government-poisoned-alcohol-during-prohibition.html

“Bootleg alcohol during the Prohibition era was overwhelmingly produced from distilled industrial alcohols. Officials reasoned that by mandating toxic additives into products which would be converted to bootleg alcohol, the supply could be effectively cut before consumption.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/30/fact-check-u-s-government-poisoned-some-alcohol-during-prohibition/3283701001/

These articles pulled info from History.com, the Library of Congress, Encyclopedia Brittanica, and the American Journal of Public Health, among other sources.