During the days of the “Prohibition” in the United States efforts were made to have beer and other alcoholic beverages recognized as medicinal products. One of the big brewers in New York applied for a permit to brew “medicinal” beer.

However, the competent Public Prosecutor ruled that the law on the prohibition of alcohol should also be applied to these “wholesome” beverages. He said: “These health-giving drinks cannot be regarded as medicinal nor as lactogenic products. When recommending stout type beers to breastfeeding women - still very common practice some 30 years ago - insufficient attention was paid to the fact that the children were also immediately soaked in alcohol.”

The attempts to make a so-called medicinal beer to circumvent the beer laws in the USA also sparked off heated debate elsewhere. One published reaction in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde read as follows: “It would seem that our American brothers have, after all, prescribed beer for patients who, despite the law, still wish to use alcoholic beverages. A bill has therefore been submitted to supplement the prohibition law with a provision that beer may not be prescribed as a medicine, whereas wine and spirits may. The quantities involved would be subject to the scrutiny of a state official.”

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