The Queen is not Amused...but I am.

museumamericangangster:

One of the biggest, and most exploited, loopholes of the 18th Amendment had to do with obtaining alcohol by doctor’s prescription. Since a large portion of medicine from the early 1900s contained alcohol as a key ingredient, the government couldn’t outright ban its use for medicinal purposes, leading many “patients” to abuse this method as a means of legally consuming alcohol. It was often left up to the physician just what ailments and conditions constituted a patient needing medically prescribed whiskey. It was estimated that doctors sent patients home with orders for medicinal alcohol that exceeded a million gallons per year during the prohibition.

Visit the Museum of the American Gangster to see one such form on display. The doctor’s reasoning for the prescription was simply “debility.”

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prohibition_prescription_front.jpg