"Physicians are not bootleggers": The short, peculiar life of the medicinal alcohol movement

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volumn 82, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 355-386

  Appel, Jacob M ^a,b  

^a BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b NONE   (United States)

Author keywords

American medical association; John P. Davin; Lambert v. Yellowley; Medicinal alcohol; Medicinal beer; Medicinal marijuana; Prohibition; Samuel lambert

Indexed keywords

ALCOHOL; CANNABINOID; CANNABIS;

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE; ARTICLE; CLINICAL PRACTICE; DRUG CONTROL; GOVERNMENT REGULATION; HEALTH PERSONNEL ATTITUDE; HISTORY; HUMAN; JURISPRUDENCE; LEGAL ASPECT; MEDICAL SOCIETY; PHYSICIAN ATTITUDE; UNITED STATES;

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION; ATTITUDE OF HEALTH PERSONNEL; CANNABINOIDS; CANNABIS; DRUG AND NARCOTIC CONTROL; ETHANOL; GOVERNMENT REGULATION; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; PHYSICIAN'S PRACTICE PATTERNS; PHYSICIAN'S ROLE; SUPREME COURT DECISIONS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 47749107270     PISSN: 00075140     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (218)

1. Emphasis is mine. The Eighteenth Amendment was ratified on 16January 1919 and took effect on 16 January 1920.
2. National Prohibition Act of 1919 (Public Law 66-66), 41 Stat. 305, section 1.
3. Ibid., section 6.
4. See Lambert v. Yellowley, 272 U.S. 581 (1926).
5. "Dr. John P. Davin Dead," New York Times, 3 September 1923, p. 13;
6. "John Patrick Davin," JAMA, 1923, 81: 946;
7. "Dr. John P. Davin," New York Tribune, 3 September 1923, p. 9.
8. John P. Davin, "Compulsory Health Insurance," Amer. Med., 1917, 12: 188;
9. John P. Davin, "The Legislative History of Compulsory Health Insurance in the State of New York," Medical Record, 17 January 1920, p. 106.
10. "Volstead in Set-To with 'Wet' Doctor," Boston Daily Globe, 13 May 1921, p. 2.
11. U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Hearings on H.R 5033, ser. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921), pp. 58-67.
12. "Volstead, in Bill, Bans Beer As Medicine, Limits Wine," Washington Post, 26 April 1921, p. 1.
13. "Battle Over Beer Before Committee," Washington Post, 13 May 1921, p. 4;
14. "Bout Over Beer in House Hearing," Hartford Courant, 13 May 1921, p. 1.
15. Hearings on HR 5033 (n. 8), p. 59.
16. See "Kvale, Who Won Volstead Seat, Burns to Death," Chicago Daily Tribune, 12 September 1929, p. 7;
17. "Newcomers to Congress in Our House Built of Blocks," New York Times, 19 November 1922, p. 114;
18. "Kvale Scores Volstead Law," Los Angeles Times, 13January 1924, p. 6;
19. "Volstead's Successor Has Broad Program," Hartford Courant, 18 December 1922, p. 7. The defeat of Volstead by Rev. Ole Juulson Kvale (1869-1929) in 1922, although largely beyond die scope of this paper, may be among the strangest in die history of congressional elections: Kvale had received more votes than Volstead in 1920 but was disqualified from holding office after falsely accusing Volstead of being an atheist. Kvale, "of socialist tendencies," was an Independent Republican and later Farmer-Labor Democrat who described himself as "just as dry as Volstead" but who favored a national referendum on Prohibition and stricter enforcement against the wealthy; many "wets" in the district appear to have voted for him, despite his views on Prohibition, in order to defeat the leading Congressional voice for Prohibition.
20. Beverly Gage "Just What the Doctor Ordered," Smithsonian, 2005, 36, 112-18. The Supreme Court's ruling upholding die federal government's right to restrict medical marijuana use under the commerce clause of die Constitution and the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005).
21. Gage, "Just What the Doctor Ordered" (n. 13), p. 113: in contrast, Gage notes that medicinal marijuana is a "far more medically significant question."
22. Ibid.
23. Earlier regulations, such as the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, had been strongly backed by the AMA and the vast majority of American doctors. In fact, prior to the medicinal beer debate, the AMA and its chief advocate in Congress, Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma, had lobbied (unsuccessfully) for the creation of a national health department with cabinet status and more federal intervention in healthcare. In contrast, shortly after the passage of legislation banning medicinal beer, Congress approved die Sheppard-Towner Act, which provided federal subsidies for state sponsored maternity care programs, over die vehement protests of the medical lobby.
24. See James Burrow, AMA: Voice of American Medicine (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1963).
25. "Watson Attacks Anti-Beer Bill in U.S. Senate," Atlanta Constitution, 20 July 1921, p. 14.
26. "Beer is Medicine, Government Rules," Boston Daily Globe, 9 March 1921, p. 1;
27. see also, for example, "Beer for Medicine Request Denied," Boston Daily Globe, 28 December 1920, p. 14.
28. "Asks for Ruling upon Prescription of Beer," Boston Daily Globe, 13 February 1921, p. 6.
29. Sean Dennis Cashman, Prohibition: The Lie of the Land (New York: The Free Press, 1981), p. 23;
30. "A Mitchell Palmer to Succeed Gregory," Boston Daily Globe, 14January 1919, p. 8;
31. Robert T Small, "76 Votes for Palmer," Washington Post, 13 March 1920, p. 1.
32. "No Legal Limit on Beer and Wine Doctors Can Order," New York Times, 10 March 1921, p. 1.
33. "Will Draw Up Beer Regulations At Once," Boston Daily Globe, 10 May 1921, p. 1.
34. "No Legal Limit on Beer and Wine" (n. 21).
35. "Beer is Medicine" (n. 18). It is worth noting that the direct effect on Palmer's ruling was probably limited to a handful of states, primarily in the northeast, because thirty-nine states prohibited beer prescriptions.
36. "Looks into Beer Ruling," Los Angeles Times, 12 May 1921, p. 11.
37. "Will Draw Up Beer Regulations" (n. 22).
38. See, for a description of Daugherty's personal indulgence, Thomas M. Coffey, The Long Thirst: Prohibition in America, 1920-1933 (New York: Norton, 1975), p. 95.
39. "Call on Daugherty to Bar Beermaking," New York Times, 11 May 1921, p. 4.
40. "Beer Prescriptions Ruling Will Stand; No Review Unless Treasury Asks It," New York Times, 11 March 1921, p. 1.
41. "Call on Daugherty" (n. 28).
42. "Will Draw Up Beer Regulations" (n. 22).
43. Ibid.
44. William G. Rothstein, American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972), p. 194.
45. John Allen Krout, The Origins of Prohibition (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1925), pp. 227-30.
46. James Harvey Young, The Toadstool Millionaires (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), p. 220.
47. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol in the Practice of Medicine," JAMA, 1922, 78: 210-31, on p. 210. The questions were sent to a random sample of 37 percent of the nation's doctors; 31,115 returned the survey (58 percent). Of the physicians "indicating form of practice," 25,889 (83 percent) were general practitioners, 2,401 were engaged in surgical specialties, and 2,825 were engaged in nonsurgical specialties.
48. Ibid., (n. 36), p. 211.
49. Ibid., 137.
50. Ibid.
51. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol in the Practice of Medicine," JAMA, 1921, 77: 2136-38;
52. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol in the Practice of Medicine," (n. 36), p. 47-57.
53. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol" (n. 36), p. 211. In Chicago, 91 physicians believed in the medical value of beer, whereas 371 did not; in St. Louis, 34 favored it, whereas 142 opposed it; in Milwaukee, 22 favored it, whereas 58 opposed it; and in Cincinnati, only 9 favored it, whereas 99 opposed it.
54. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol" (n. 40), p. 55.
55. Ibid., p. 2075.
56. For example, 34 of 108 physicians in Arizona had witnessed such death or suffering firsthand. See "The Referendum on die Use of Alcohol" (n. 40), p. 47.
57. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol" (n. 36), p. 211.
58. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol" (n. 40), p. 52.
59. Ibid.
60. "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol" (n. 36), p. 138.
61. Charles A. Rosewater, "Alcohol as Medicine," J. Med. Soc. N.J., 1919, 16: 274-82.
62. Abraham Jacobi (1830-1919), former president of the New York County Medical Society, the New York Pathological Society, the New York Obstetrics Society, Clinical Professor of the Diseases of Children at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1870-1902), and widely regarded as die "father of pediatrics."
63. Sir William Osler (1849-1919), chief of staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1889-1905), Regius Chair of Medicine at Oxford University (1905-1919), and audior of The Principles and Practice of Medicine.
64. Norman Shanks Kerr (1834-1899), first president of die Society for the Study and Cure of Inebriety (now the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs).
65. Charles Gilmore Kerley (1863-1945), former president of the American Pediatric Society, and author of the best-selling Short Talks With Young Mothers (1902) and the authoritative Principles of Pediatrics (1914).
66. W. Gilman Thompson (1856-1927), professor of medicine at Cornell Medical College (1898-1916), author of "Practical Diatetics" (1906), and the nation's leading authority on occupational diseases.
67. Luther Emmet Holt (1855-1924), Professor of Children's Diseases at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1901-1924), Chief Physician at Babies' Hospital (New York), Secretary and Director of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, author of the renowned The Care and Feeding of Children, and one of the founders of die American Children's Health Association.
68. Arthur Robinson Cushny (1866-1926), Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the University of Michigan (1893-1905), Chair of Pharmacology, University College, London ( 1905-1918), Chair of Materia Medica and Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh (1918-1926), and audior of Text-Book of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
69. John H. Musser (1857-1912), Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, President of the Medical Library Association, leading diagnostician, and the editor of the widely used Handbook of Practical Treatment.
70. Paul Bartholow (1868-1929), Professor of Materia Medica, General Therapeutics and Hygiene at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and author of Materia Medica and Therapeutics.
71. Rosewater, "Alcohol as Medicine" (n. 49), p. 279.
72. Ibid., p. 280.
73. Ibid., p. 281.
74. Ibid., p. 275.
75. Ibid., p. 282.
76. H. H. Dale, "Discussion of the Value of Alcohol as a Therapeutic Agent," Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1920, 13: 31.
77. Ibid., pp. 46, 50.
78. Ibid., p. 33.
79. Alex Acheson, "Prohibition and the Practice of Medicine," Tex. State J. Med., 1920, 16: 305.
80. Lucius Felix Herz, "Reform or Fanaticism?" Medical Record, 12 November 1921, p. 853.
81. "Court Lifts Limit on Doctors' Liquor," New York Times, 10 May 1923, p. 1.
82. "Doctors and Prohibition," New York Times, 24 April 1921, p. XX5.
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid.
85. See "The Referendum on the Use of Alcohol in the Practice of Medicine" (n. 36), 210-11.
86. "Physicians are not Bootleggers," Chicago Daily Tribune, 25 May 1922, p. 8.
87. "Medical Beer and One Gill," New York Times, 14 May 1921, p. 8.
88. Hearings on HR 5033 (n. 8), p. 2.
89. Ibid., p. 103. The other witness, retired Johns Hopkins surgeon Howard A. Kelly, spoke categorically against the medicinal value of beer.
90. Hearings on H.R. 5033 (n. 8), pp. 9, 16.
91. Ibid., pp. 11, 23.
92. "Ask House to Split Action on Beer Bill," New York Times, 22 June 1921, p. 13. Some opponents of the Volstead Bill saw its anti-industrial alcohol elements as a reflection of the influence of oil baron John D. Rockefeller, who they claimed feared the development of an "alcohol engine" that might replace the gasoline engine.
93. See "Drys' Counsel Assailed During Debate on Beer," Chicago Daily Tribune, 28 July 1921, p. 5.
94. "House Holds Up Anti-Beer Bill," Boston Daily Globe, 12 August 1921, P- L Mann was a "master in the art of tying up measures in red tape when the 'i's are not dotted" and is today best remembered for the Mann Act of 1910, which prohibited the transport of women across state lines for "immoral purposes," and the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, which extended the Interstate Commerce Commission's authority to communications.
95. "U.S. Ready to Sanction Beer '3 Times A Day,'" Chicago Daily Tribune, 20 March 1921, p. 1.
96. "Volstead, in Bill, Bans Beer As Medicine, Limits Wine," Washington Post, 26 April 1921, p. 1
97. John Gleisser, "Beer for Medicine to Be Given Soon," Atlanta Constitution, 21June 1921, p. 4.
98. "Senator Holds Up Appointment of David Blair," Chicago Daily Tribune, 4 May 1921 p. 6;
99. "Volstead, in Bill, Banus Beer" (n. 83).
100. "Fate of Anti-Beer Bill Yet Uncertain," New York Times, 23 June 1921, p. 7.
101. "Gallivan Says Beer Bill Defeats Drys' Purpose," Boston Daily Globe, 28 June 1921, p. 10. 88. "Anti-Beer Bills Passed in House," Boston Daily Globe, 28 June 1921, p. 1.
102. See "Oudook Now for Lifting of Dry Ban Dec 1," Chicago Daily Tribune, 29 October 1919, p. 1 for the Senate vote on the initial Volstead Act. Lodge was not in favor of the Eighteendi Amendment initially but voted for subsequent enforcement measures.
103. "Lodge Assails Anti-Beer Bill," Boston Daily Globe, 13 July 1921, p. 1.
104. "Senators Revolt," Washington Post, 14 July 1921, p. 6.
105. "Senate Debate on Beer Bill Begun," Boston Daily Globe, 9 July 1921, p. 6.
106. "Senators Put Snag in Path of 'Beer Bill,'" New York Tribune, 9 July 1921, p. 5;
107. "Wadsworth, Williams and Knox Condemn Measure," Boston Daily Globe, 13 July 1921.
108. "Block Senate Vote on Anti-Beer Bill," New York Times, 9 July 1921, p. 5.
109. "Senator Ball Defends Vote in Favor of Beer," Washington Post, 11 December 1921, p. 58. The other physician-turned-senator, Joseph I. France, Republican of Maryland, did not vote.
110. "Medical Liberty Chained," New York Times, 10 August 1923, p. 8.
111. Ibid.
112. "Physicians are not Bootleggers" (n. 74).
113. "Prohibition Anarchy," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 27 June 1921, p. 22.
114. "Making Prohibition Obnoxious," New York Tribune, 30 June 1921, p. 12.
115. Ibid.
116. "Prohibition Anarchy" (n. 99).
117. "Dry Lawyer for U.S. Quits; Law is Too Severe," Chicago Daily Tribune, 27 June 1921, p. 3;
118. "House, 176-55, Overturns Veto on War Prohibition," New York Times, 28 October 1919, p. 1.
119. "Doctors May Now Prescribe Beer," Boston Daily Globe, 25 October 1921, p. 1.
120. The nine states were California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, as well as portions of Louisiana and Maryland.
121. See "Only Nine States Get Beer and Medicine," New York Times, 26 October 1921, p. 1.
122. "Senate Sees Court Battle On Beer Bill," New York Tribune, 10 July 1921, p. 1.
123. "President Signs Anti-Beer Bill," Wall Street Journal, 24 November 1921, p. 13.
124. "Alcohol in Medicine Gets Death Blow," Washington Post, 27 July 1917, p. 4.
125. "Defer Action on Alcohol," New York Times, 10 June 1921. p. 6.
126. "Doctors Urged to Unite Against Prohibition Curse," Atlanta Constitution, 28 June 1921, p. 5. The Allied Medical Association of America was founded in 1918 in order to "make the world safe for medical democracy" by organizing American physicians against the use of German medical equipment. By 1921, it had branches in major cities across the country and had staked out positions on a wide swath of medical issues.
127. See "Allied Medical Association of U.S. Formed," Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 May 1918, p. 7.
128. "Calls Prohibition Curse to Country," New York Times, 28 June 1921, p. 3.
129. "Doctors Urged to Unite Against Prohibition Curse" (n. 110), p. 5.
130. "Prohibition Pilloried," Los Angeles Times, 28 June 1921, p. 11.
131. "Calls Prohibition Curse to Country" (n. 111).
132. "Physicians Ask Veto of Anti-Beer Bill," New York Times, 21 November 1921, p. 17.
133. "Wants Government to Sell Whisky," Boston Daily Globe, 23 May 1922, p. 2.
134. "Prohibition and Medicine," New York Times, 8 July 1923, p. XX8.
135. "Lay Comment on Alcohol Resolution," JAMA, 1922, 79: 63.
136. "Doctors Organize to Fight Dry Law," New York Times, 26 September 1922, p. 6.
137. "Party Candidates File For Primaries," New York Times, 23 August 1922, p. 11.
138. "Doctors Organize to Fight Dry Law" (n. 119).
139. Ibid.
140. Ibid.
141. "Against Lay Control," New York Times, 19 August 1922, p. 6.
142. "Doctors Organize to Fight Dry Law" (n. 119).
143. "Elected to United States House of Representatives," Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 November 1922, p. 4.
144. "Letter to the Editor," New York Times, 8 July 1923, p. XX8.
145. "Homes Made Breweries, Says Sponsor; Assails Harding Letter as 'Amazing,'" New York Tribune, 1 June 1923, p. 2.
146. "Dr. John P. Davin Seriously Ill," New York Times, 1 September 1923, p. 11;
147. "Dr. John P. Davin Dead" (n. 5); "John Patrick Davin" (n. 5).
148. "Dr. Davin, Dry Law Opponent, Is Dead," New York World, 3 September 1923, p. 19.
149. F.J. L. Blasingame, Digest of Official Actions of the American Medical Association, 1846-1958 (United States: American Medical Association, 1959), p. 15.
150. Ibid., p. 16.
151. "105 Doctors Sue To Annul Dry Laws Affecting Practice," New York Times, 19 November 1922, p. 1.
152. Loyd Thompson, Who's Who in American Medicine (New York: Who's Who Publications, 1925).
153. "105 Doctors Sue To Annul Dry Laws" (n. 133).
154. Ibid.
155. Ibid.
156. "Court Lifts Limit" (n. 69).
157. "105 Doctors Sue To Annul Dry Laws" (n. 133).
158. "Doctor Asks Injunction Against Dry Official," Washington Post, 21 November 1922, p. 13.
159. Yellowley (1873-1962) is known today for his role as the director of federal prohibition enforcement in Chicago, where he set up "The Untouchables" and hired Eliot Ness. His name remained attached to the lawsuit even though he was soon transferred to Washington, D.C., and then to Chicago.
160. See "Yellowley, Untouchables Boss, Is Dead: U.S. Revenue Agent for 47 years," Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 February 1962, p. 18.
161. Lambert v. Yellowley, District Court of the Southern District of New York, 291 F. 640 (1923). Incidentally, this was not the first legal challenge to the constitutionality of the medicinal beer restrictions. The previous year, the brewing industry had lost such a suit.
162. See "Piel Brothers Lose Medical Beer Suit," New York Times, 9 February 1922, p. 12;
163. see also "Olcott Attacks Medical Beer Ban," 1 January 1922, p. 23.
164. "U.S. Secret Service Match for Plotters, Says Judge," Atlanta Constitution, 4 April 1918, p. 1. Judge Knox, who was appointed at age thirty-seven and served from 1918 to 1955, the last seven of those as chief judge, is probably best remembered for his books on the judiciary aimed at a lay readership.
165. See John C. Knox, A Judge Comes of Age (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940).
166. "See Loophole in 'Bone Dry' Army Law," New York Times, 20 February 1918, p. 20.
167. Lambert, 291 F. 640 (n. 142).
168. Ibid.
169. Ibid.
170. Ibid.
171. "Court Lifts Limit on Doctors' Liquor" (n. 69).
172. Ibid.
173. Ibid.
174. "Doctor Wins Again in Fight on Dry Law," New York Times, 30 May 1923, p. 17.
175. Lambert v. Yellowley, 4 F.2d. 915 (2nd Cir. 1924). My emphasis.
176. Ibid.
177. Ibid.
178. See Robert Post, "Federalism, Positive Law, and the Emergence of the American Administrative State: Prohibition in the Taft Court Era," Wm. and Mary L. Rev., 2006, 48: 1-183, on p. 1.
179. Ibid.
180. Ibid.
181. Ibid.
182. "Survey of Books Relating to the Law," Mich. Law Rev., 1985, 83:1057. After resigning from the government in 1929, Willebrandt (1889-1963) returned to private practice in California. Her clients, a who's who of Hollywood celebrities, included Louis B. Mayer, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. She also served as counsel to the Screen Directors Guild, where she attempted to impose a loyalty oath upon members and allied herself with Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's crusade against domestic communism.
183. See Dorothy M. Brown, Mabel Walker Willebrandt: A Study of Power, Loyalty and Law (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984).
184. "New Dry Drive Seen in Conference Here," New York Times, 20 March 1926, p. 3.
185. Lambert, 272 U.S. 581 (n. 4).
186. Post, "Federalism, Positive Law, and the Emergence of the American Administrative State" (n. 156), n. 214.
187. Lambert, 272 U.S. 581 (n. 4).
188. Ibid.
189. Ibid.
190. Ibid.
191. Ibid.
192. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905).
193. "Dry Law Upheld on Prescriptions," New York Times, 30 November 1926, p. 1.
194. "Liquor as Medicine Ruling Under Fire," New York Times, 14 December 1926, p. 17.
195. Ibid. The misstatements were that an AMA survey had shown a majority of physicians opposed to therapeutic uses for alcohol, although a majority had actually favored its use, and that a large number of physicians had been prescribing alcohol for beverage purposes, a proposition for which Dr. Chalmers argued that there was no evidence.
196. "Liquor as Medicine Ruling Under Fire" (n. 171).
197. Gage, "Just What the Doctor Ordered" (n. 13), p. 112.
198. For a detailed account of the AMA's efforts to secure the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, see Burrow, AMA (n. 16), pp. 75-83.
199. See Kenneth C. Sears, "Legal Control of Medical Practice: Validity and Methods," Mich. Law Rev., 1946, 44: 689-714.
200. James Mohr, Doctors and the Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 252.
201. "'Better Babies' Bill Passed By U.S. Senate," Atlanta Constitution, 23 July 1921, p. 1.
202. "Attack Infancy Aid Bill," Washington Post, 6 May 1921, p. 2.
203. See also "Against Maternity Bill," Washington Post, 19 July 1921, p. 5;
204. "Opening The Gates to Medical Inefficiency," Chicago Daily Tribune, 9 June 1923, p. 8.
205. Morris Fishbein, The History of the American Medical Association, 1847-1947 (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1947).
206. See "Lay Comment on Alcohol Resolution" (n. 118).
207. Ibid.
208. Ibid.
209. Fishbein, The History of the American Medical Association (n. 180).
210. Burrow, AMA (n. 16), pp. 75-83; 163-64.
211. Ibid., p. 75-83, 157.
212. Ibid., p. 75-83, 247.
213. Although largely beyond the scope of this paper, it is likely that the debates over alcohol prescriptions shaped physicians' attitudes toward the other major medical policy debate of the early to mid-twentieth century era, national health insurance.
214. See Jonathan Engel, Doctors and Reformers (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002).
215. Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (n. 13).
216. Ibid., opinion of Justice John Paul Stevens.
217. Some evidence does indicate that small doses of beer over a long period of time have significant health benefits.
218. See T.J. Cleophas, "Wine, Beer and Spirits and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction: A Systematic Review," Biomed. Pharmacother, October 1999, 53: 417-23. No evidence seems to argue for any acute therapeutic advantages from beer consumption.