It was the Prohibition. Alcohol was illegal and it was being removed from doctor’s cabinets, having been declared to have no medicinal value.
U.S. Attorney Says Doctors Can’t Be Trusted With Rum
Would Prescribe Unlimited Quantities, His Answer in Volstead Suit
Assistant United States District Attorney John H. Clark Jr. today filed his answer in the suit of Dr. Samuel W. Lambert against Prohibition Director E. C. Yellowly, seeking to restrain him from the application of the Volstead law to physicians in prescribing liquor for patients.
Dr. Lambert, in his action, protests that Congress has no power to dictate to physicians as to the amount of liquor they shall prescribe and when Congress, he maintains, is placing itself in the position of practicing medicine.
Attorney Clark answers that the suit is really against the United States Government. He declares that medical authorities maintain that liquor is not essential in medicine and that removal of the ban on physicians would leave the door open to unscrupulous medical practitioners to prescribe booze in unlimited quantities.
The Assistant District Attorney also filed his answer in the suit of Edward and James Burke, manufacturers of Guinness’s Stout, against Internal Revenue Commissioner David W. Blair to enjoin him from interfering with the sale of stout for medicinal purposes. The attorney claims that Guinness’s stout contains no therapeutic values or possesses any curative or health giving qualities. He says it’s a drink, not medicine.
[Source: The Evening World (New York City, NY newspaper). December 20, 1922.]
