The other prohibition: The cigarette crisis in post-war Germany

After the Second World War Germany experienced a severe shortage of cigarettes and, as a consequence, most of the evils we know from drug prohibitions: black markets, crime and corruption, and desperate addicts. Based on the analysis of newspapers from 1945 to 1949 and on interviews with witnesses, the paper describes this crisis as a peculiar form of prohibition, with economic forces playing the role of legal restraints. In a concluding discussion it shows that policy makers—as far as tobacco is concerned—have learned the lesson from history, shied away from prohibition and turned to attempts at demand reduction, substance control and restrictions of opportunities to use. The success of this policy might well be relevant for drug policy in general.