Nip joints, found most commonly in Appalachia and similar areas where corn is grown in abundance, are venues where illegal liquor (i.e., moonshine) is sold, often by the drink. Most nip joints are located in residential areas inside homes. The individual in charge is therefore referred to as the "House Man" or "House Lady". Some nip joints have more amenities than others. [1]
By not paying the taxes levied on ethanol sold for consumption (and also typically not paying the taxes on their own income from the practice), moonshiners, bootleggers, and nip joint operators are able to make a significant tax-free profit. The enforcement of laws against bootlegging and moonshining is therefore necessary to protect a significant source of government revenue, as well as to provide a fair competitive environment for businesses that comply with the law. [1]
In 2007, the U.S. federal government took in over $5.6 billion in taxes on alcoholic beverages. [2] This government revenue source is protected by the law enforcement activities against those who do not pay the taxes.
As the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia put it, "a nip joint operation deprives the licensed restaurant owner of a legitimate source of income, and deprives the citizens of the Commonwealth and its localities of a legitimate source of tax revenues." [1]
Illness and deaths caused by adulterated moonshine are exceedingly rare. Moonshine is sometimes mixed with methanol or other adulterants that can be hazardous to public health. [1] However, moonshine poses no risk of methanol poisoning unless methanol is explicitly added after production [ citation needed ]. In December 2011 it was reported that 168 people had died in India after consuming moonshine that had been adulterated and therefore contained high levels of methanol. [3]
Moonshine produced in stills manufactured with lead solder can contain medically-significant quantities of lead. The incidence of impure moonshine has been documented to significantly increase the risk of renal disease among those who regularly consume it, primarily from increased lead content. [4]
Methanol is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the chemical formula CH3OH. It is a light, volatile, colorless and flammable liquid with a distinctive alcoholic odor similar to that of ethanol, but is more acutely toxic than the latter. Methanol acquired the name wood alcohol because it was once produced chiefly by the destructive distillation of wood. Today, methanol is mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide.
Moonshine is high-proof liquor, traditionally made or distributed illegally. Its clandestine distribution is known as bootlegging. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial distilleries have adopted the term for its outlaw cachet and begun producing their own legally sanctioned, novelty "moonshine", including many flavored varieties, that in some sense continue its tradition, generally having a similar method and/or location of production.
Denatured alcohol, also known as methylated spirits, metho, or meths in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom; and denatured rectified spirit is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, bad-tasting, foul-smelling, or nauseating to discourage its recreational consumption. It is sometimes dyed so that it can be identified visually. Pyridine and methanol, each and together, make denatured alcohol poisonous; and denatonium makes it bitter.
Liquor is an alcoholic drink produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit, distilled beverage, booze, spirituous liquor or hard liquor. The distillation process concentrates the liquid to increase its alcohol by volume. As liquors contain significantly more alcohol (ethanol) than other alcoholic drinks, they are considered "harder." In North America, the term hard liquor is sometimes used to distinguish distilled alcoholic drinks from non-distilled ones, whereas the term spirits is more commonly used in the UK. Some examples of liquors include vodka, rum, gin, and tequila. Liquors are often aged in barrels, such as for the production of brandy and whiskey, or are infused with flavorings to form flavored liquors, such as absinthe.
A hangover is the experience of various unpleasant physiological and psychological effects usually following the consumption of alcohol, such as wine, beer, and liquor. Hangovers can last for several hours or for more than 24 hours. Typical symptoms of a hangover may include headache, drowsiness, concentration problems, dry mouth, dizziness, fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, absence of hunger, light sensitivity, depression, sweating, hyper-excitability, irritability, and anxiety.
Surrogate alcohol is a term for any substance containing ethanol that is intentionally consumed by humans but is not meant for human consumption. Some definitions of the term also extend to illegally produced alcoholic beverages.
An alcoholic beverage is a beverage containing alcohol. Alcoholic drinks are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—and typically their alcohol content is between 3% and 50%.
Akpeteshie is a liquor produced by distilling palm wine or sugar cane, primarily in the region of Western Africa. It is the national spirit of Ghana. In Nigeria it is known as Ògógóró (Ogog'), a Yoruba word, usually distilled locally from fermented Raffia palm tree juice, where it is known as the country's homebrew. Today, there is a misconception that Ogogoro can be pure ethanol, but traditionally, it had to come from the palm tree and then be distilled from this source.
The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933.
The Gujarat alcohol poisonings occurred in July 2009 in Gujarat, resulting in the death of 136 people from consumption of bootleg liquor.
Alcohol laws are laws relating to manufacture, use, being under the influence of and sale of alcohol or alcoholic beverages. Common alcoholic beverages include beer, wine, (hard) cider, and distilled spirits. Definition of alcoholic beverage varies internationally, e.g., the United States defines an alcoholic beverage as "any beverage in liquid form which contains not less than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume". Alcohol laws can restrict those who can produce alcohol, those who can buy it, when one can buy it, labelling and advertising, the types of alcoholic beverage that can be sold, where one can consume it, what activities are prohibited while intoxicated, and where one can buy it. In some cases, laws have even prohibited the use and sale of alcohol entirely.
The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) is a company owned by the Government of Tamil Nadu, which has a monopoly over wholesale and retail vending of alcoholic beverages in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It controls the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) trade in the state.
Alcohol-related crime refers to criminal activities that involve alcohol use as well as violations of regulations covering the sale or use of alcohol; in other words, activities violating the alcohol laws. Underage drinking and drunk driving are the most prevalent alcohol‐specific offenses in the United States and a major problem in many, if not most, countries worldwide. Similarly, arrests for alcohol-related crimes constitute a high proportion of all arrests made by police in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Alcohol, sometimes referred to by the chemical name ethanol, is a depressant drug found in fermented beverages such as beer, wine, and distilled spirit — in particular, rectified spirit. Ethanol is colloquially referred to as "alcohol" because it is the most prevalent alcohol in alcoholic beverages, but technically all alcoholic beverages contain several types of psychoactive alcohols, that are categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary; Primary, and secondary alcohols, are oxidized to aldehydes, and ketones, respectively, while tertiary alcohols are generally resistant to oxidation; Ethanol is a primary alcohol that has unpleasant actions in the body, many of which are mediated by its toxic metabolite acetaldehyde. Less prevalent alcohols found in alcoholic beverages, are secondary, and tertiary alcohols. For example, the tertiary alcohol 2M2B which is up to 50 times more potent than ethanol and found in trace quantities in alcoholic beverages, has been synthesized and used as a designer drug. Alcoholic beverages are sometimes laced with toxic alcohols, such as methanol and isopropyl alcohol. A mild, brief exposure to isopropyl alcohol is unlikely to cause any serious harm, but many methanol poisoning incidents have occurred through history, since methanol is lethal even in small quantities, as little as 10–15 milliliters. Ethanol is used to treat methanol and ethylene glycol toxicity.
Cholai is an illegal alcoholic beverage made in India, equivalent to "hooch" or "bootleg" alcohol. Usually made from rice, it is sometimes mixed with industrial alcohol or methanol, which has resulted in several hundred deaths.
The 2020 Punjab alcohol poisoning was an incident in late July and early August 2020, where at least 100 people died after drinking illegally-made toxic alcohol in Punjab, India. Hundreds of raids were conducted in the three affected districts - Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran - along with several other places in and around the Rajpura and Shambhu border in Punjab. Forty people were arrested in relation to the incident. Seven excise officials, six policemen were also suspended over the incident.
On 25 July 2022, at least 42 people died and more than 97 were hospitalized in a methanol poisoning incident in Gujarat, India. The victims had consumed undiluted methyl alcohol (methanol), assuming it to be alcohol. The spurious liquor was then sold to more than 100 people in the villages of Ahmedabad, Botad and Surendranagar.
The Consequences of Prohibition did not just include effects on people's drinking habits but also on the worldwide economy, the people's trust of the government, and the public health system. Alcohol, from the rise of the temperance movement to modern day restrictions around the world, has long been a source of turmoil. When alcoholic beverages were first banned under the Volstead Act in 1919, the United States government had little idea of the severity of the consequences. It was first thought that a ban on alcohol would increase the moral character of society, but a ban on alcohol had vast unintended consequences.
