State Health Rankings, Prohibition meant

No Advertising which means no Enabling

Fourth of a six part series on the Marijuana initiative petition.

The practical matter of Prohibition in Oklahoma was to ban advertising of liquor. The state government was not allowing ads to enable its use. These were the decades before the Surgeon General’s warnings were attached to every bottle or can of alcohol. But, year in and year out, the ‘wets’ as they liked to describe themselves, advertised across the state lines to lobby the state to change the law. Finally the liquor forces circulated initiative petitions, gaining signatures, to put the question to change the Constitution on the state wide ballot, and put it to a vote. This was tried every two years, or so, in the 1950s, with changes here and there, until they hit on the appeal that liquor would not be available for sale by restaurants or saloons, but only in bottles and had to be consumed at homes, in the privacy of a man’s castle. This became the issue for the 1958 mid-term election, and the Gubernatorial candidate, J. Howard Edmondson, ran on a plat form to just make this change to the constitution, so people wouldn’t be criminals and sneak around.   The restaurants would have to wait. The wets won the election, and liquor could be advertised far and wide throughout Oklahoma.

ok.gov/governor

Oklahoma’s dry status made national news, as noted on prime time television game show, ‘What’s My Line?’ when a panel member, Bennett Cerf, a New Yorker and Publisher of Random House, commented about the Governor Edmondson getting the ‘obnoxious law’ repealed. Edmondson had just been elected in 1958, at age 33, and was the youngest Governor in the nation. Edmondson beamed on nationwide TV, and remarked, that it was the people who made the change. ‘’  On taking office, [Edmondson] kept his campaign promise to end Oklahoma’s half century of Prohibition.’’ Edmondson had a heart attack and died at age 46 as reported in the press.

It was not a decade, when another Oklahoma initiative petition was circulated for signatures to allow Liquor by the drink, instead of a whole bottle. This was advertised as reducing consumption. The media supported this, as another advertising source from restaurants, or national media. A cynic might suppose this was also supported by funeral directors whose business would pick up, or addiction recovery sanitariums or hospitals whose commercial business is to help recovering addicts. I don’t know. I do know the elections were always special elections, apart from the officer elections, hoping the supporters of liquor would turn out better than opponents. This worked again.   Then in the late 1970s Oklahoma legalized and adopted pari mutuel gambling for horse racing. And so it went for Oklahoma.  Also about this time, Indian Nation casino gambling took off.  Oklahoma has 124 Indian casino owned by 30 tribes. [500nations.com].   49 of 77 counties have casinos. Always it was done in the name of collecting taxes for education.

An example of warning advertising is the flattened can.

On a national level, drugs were associated with the untimely deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and smoking lung cancer for Walt Disney. Later drug deaths came to John Belushi, Elvis Presley, Prince, Michael Jackson. There is even a web site

https://drugabuse.com/featured/celebrity-drug-death-memorial-wall/ for the tragedy of 75 celebrity drug deaths.

With each census Oklahoma slipped down the rankings, while the chronic drinking increased, and tobacco use spread as well.  So legalizing liquor meant legalizing advertising, and enough of it. With each census Utah climbed a notch higher.

An example of alcohol container warning.

Busch Beer Product of USA GOVERNMENT WARNING (1) ACCORDING TO THE SURGEON GENERAL, WOMEN SHOULD NOT DRINK ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES DURING PREGNANCY BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBLE BIRTH DEFECTS. (2) CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IMPAIRS YOUR ABILITY TO DRIVE A CAR OR OPERATE MACHINERY, AND MAY CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS.

Even if Oklahoma wanted to change its mind, it could not. The mistake was made.

Disclaimer: The author of each article published on this web site owns his or her own words. The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Utah Standard News or official policies of the USN and may actually reflect positions that USN actively opposes.

© Edmunds Tucker. No claim in public domain or fair use.