I don’t doubt that you’ve seen articles in every whiskey publication about whether whiskey is medicinal or not. There are videos and blogs and podcasts on the topic. Many new whiskey enthusiasts may be surprised on distillery tours when they hear that prescriptions were once written for whiskey during Prohibition. How odd it must’ve been, right? Well, yes and no. We all know someone that “over-medicates” with whiskey. And there is no doubt that whiskey affects one’s health and mental state. One dram may calm the nerves, but three or four will more likely agitate them. The question isn’t whether whiskey affects your physical body. Of course it does! Instead, America and its regulatory bodies have always been more concerned with how capable its citizens are at managing their own intake of alcohol and how those personal decisions affect society. Even within the medical community, there have always been diverging perspectives on whether or not whiskey holds value as a medicine. Unfortunately, politicians, not health care specialists, have always driven the discourse.
In 1916, the authors of The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America– a reference book of standards, identities, and formulas for drugs/medicines- took two liquors, brandy and whiskey, off the list of scientifically approved medicines. The American Medical Association also voted to advocate for prohibition in 1917. It was a close vote, but the doctors had spoken. Whiskey=bad.
In 1920, Dr. Harvey Wiley (former chief chemist of the Dept of Agriculture and sponsor of the Food and Drug Act and a VERY pivotal character for the whiskey industry during and after Prohibition) and Wayne Wheeler (Anti-Saloon League) forced the issue of whiskey’s medicinal properties again with a referendum at the American Medical Association’s yearly convention. The vote to approve whiskey and brandy as medicinal spirits was reintroduced, and with Wiley and Wheeler’s influence, the referendum passed with 55% of the vote. The United States Pharmacopeia did not include medicinal spirits for the first half of the decade, 1925 marked the return of whiskey to The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America. With some powerful political influence, whiskey=okay. Whiskey was returned to the authoritative volume with new language revising its description. The new description read:
“Medicinal whiskey or “spirits frumenti” is “an alcoholic liquor obtained by distillation of the fermented mash of wholly or partly malted cereal grains and containing not less than 47 per cent and not more than 53 per cent by volume of C2H5OH (ethyl alcohol) at 55.56 degrees centigrade.” And as if Dr. Wiley had written this bit himself, it added, “must have been stored in charred wood containers for a period of not less than four years.”
Physicians varied on their opinions on whether or not whiskey had medicinal value, but most agreed that standards should at least be set. The assistant federal district attorney, John B. Osmun, explained away any connection of revisions to the US Pharmacopeia may have had with the Prohibition Bureau. “Whiskey’s entrance into the pharmacopeia is purely an act of the Department of Agriculture and was in no way inspired by prohibition enforcers.” (The Dayton Herald, Oct.25, 1925)
Whiskey has always been a political football- kicked back and forth between those that do and do not approve of its consumption. Good, bad or otherwise, I don’t know many people that haven’t had a hot toddy when they were feeling ill or at least know of folks that swear by it. The article I attached made me laugh because it’s from 1992. Nothing to see here. Just the liquor industry kicking its football away from the regulatory body that may or may not call a penalty…same story, different decade. In the meantime, I feel awful. Time to make a hot toddy and treat my cold with some medicinal whiskey😊