Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Prohibition prescriptions

New donation to the library:


While the production, transport, and sale of liquor was illegal during Prohibition, the National Prohibition Act allowed alcohol for medicinal and religious use. This loophole was often exploited as a way to acquire alcohol, but it required a prescription that cost $3 from the doctor and another $3 or $4 to get it filled from a pharmacist. A doctor could prescribe up to a pint of a certain kind of liquor, or Spiritus frumenti [spirits of grain], the official medical name for whisky.

The following "Prescriptions" for whiskey, filed during the prohibition, were filled in by various physicians, but all turned in to Plank Drug Co. at 49 S. Main St., and then found their way to Brickles Tavern for filling.