The doctor bootlegger
Alcohol for medicinal purposes, most often whiskey and brandy, were allowed under the Volstead Act, as prescribed by a licensed practicing physician. In many rural areas, where bootleggers were less likely to be found easily, the doctor became the source of a desired beverage. Evidently, many Americans were concerned with their health during Prohibition, because between the onset of the ban on alcohol and the end of the 1920s, physicians earned $40 million dollars from prescribing alcohol for their patients, nearly one-half of a billion dollars in today’s dollars.
During Prohibition, prescriptions for alcohol were required to be written on a form provided by the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of the Treasury. The completed prescription was taken to the pharmacist, where the form was canceled and the prescription filled. Both the pharmacist and the physician profited from the sale of liquor by prescription, and the records required intricate management to ensure that they maintained the appearance of legality. Because legitimate alcoholic beverages needed to be available in order to maintain its medical use, the government oversaw its production at a few distilleries.
Most physicians remained true to their oath to “…first do no harm” but the sizable number of alcohol prescriptions – more than three times the decade which preceded Prohibition, indicates that they were a bit more open-minded about its use for a variety of ailments. Doctors also maintained a stock of alcohol at their office or carried it with them on their rounds, enabling them to be a dispenser of good spirits in two senses of the phrase, completely within the boundaries of the law.