MADAM – F Segolini makes some interesting and valid points about the failure of alcohol prohibition in the US (Letters, ATG No 2373).
We don’t believe there is any equivalence between the prohibition of alcohol and the prohibition of trading in ivory. The ethical considerations of alcohol production do not extend as far as the extinction of large mammals… and there has never been a finite limit to the production of alcohol.
We do agree that prohibition is a blunt instrument and is unlikely to succeed on its own, and that the lessons of regulation and enforcement must be learned.