The big Wyoming news on this Valentine's Day Eve was the passage of a "Dry Bill" that limited the production of alcohol to beverages with no more than 1% of the stuff in them.
This has been noted before here, but the curious thing about this bill is that it was wholly redundant. It was known at the time that the Federal government was going to pass its own bill to bring the provisions of the 18th Amendment into force. So why was a state bill necessary? Well, it really wasn't.
Or maybe it wasn't. A modern analogy might be the bills regarding marijuana, which remains illegal under Federal law. Many states prohibited it, and still do, under state law. The Federal law remains in full force and effect for marijuana which technically, in legal terms, makes all state efforts to repeal its illegality, which date back to the early 1970s, moot. However, in recent years the Federal Government has chosen not to enforce the law, and states have legalized it under state law. There's nothing to preclude the Federal government from enforcing its own laws again other than that it would be unpopular.
Something similar, but not identical, occurred with alcohol. The Prohibition movement was successful in making it illegal under the laws of numerous states before the 18th Amendment became law. Even running right up to that states were passing anti alcohol laws right and left, and as can be seen, some passed them even after Prohibition came to the U.S. Constitution. But that meant than when the 18th Amendment was repealed those same states, i.e., most of them, had to figure out how to deal with the ban under their own laws. Wyoming chose to step out of Prohibition slowly over a term of years.
To bring this current, in recent years there's been efforts in Wyoming to have Wyoming follow the smoky trail laid down by weedy Colorado, and to allow marijuana for some purposes. If it did, that would certainly be the first step to being a general legalization under state law. As people have become unaware that it remains illegal under the Federal law, that would be regarded as a general legalization, and indeed my prediction is that at some point in the future when the Democrats control both houses of Congress, the Federal law will be repealed.
All of that is, in my view, a tragedy as Americans clearly don't need anything more to dull their whits chemically than they already have. While I'm not a teetotaler, and I think passing the 18th Amendment in general was a foolish thing to do, it's a shame that once it came it was reversed as society would have been better off without alcohol quite clearly. In terms of public health, Prohibition was a success and likewise, the legalization of marijuana will be a disaster. About the only consolation that can be made of it is that, in my view, within a decade it'll prove to be such a public health threat that lawyers will be advertising class action law suits against weed companies for whatever long lasting health effects, and it will have some, that its proven to have. It'll vest into American society like tobacco, something that we know is really bad for us, but people use anyway, and then they file suit against companies that produce it based on the fact that they turn out to be surprised that its really bad for you.
In other 1919 news, a big blizzard was in the region.
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