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This paper reconstructs the story of a so far unknown manuscript, a handwritten, personal account detailing a 1927 journey to the United States and Canada with the primary purpose of selling Hungarian wine as part of a more extensive international venture. The article introduces the research that led to the identification of the writer of the manuscript - written on sheets of paper from a Canadian hotel - and outlines the background of a fascinating business project, thereby positioning the text not only as a unique example to be studied with the tools of microhistory but also placing it in the broader, transatlantic historical and political environment of the time. The text is also studied and presented as a piece of travel writing that provides unique insights into Hungarian perceptions of North America in the 1920s and the Hungarian images of Canada and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the consumption of alcohol amongst Canadian soldiers based in the East Sussex town of Hastings in 1917. It shows that more relaxed restrictions on alcohol in Britain to those in Canada, all provinces and eventually the federal government had prohibited alcohol by 1918, proved too much of a temptation for some Canadians, who were caught up in instances of drunkenness, disorder and petty crime. The wide availability of alcohol in the town coupled with poor administration and scattered billets provided a fertile environment for ill-discipline. This caused tension between some in the community and the Canadians. Another theme which started to emerge in Hastings was that Canada was more socially advanced than Britain. The motherland's reluctance to completely ban alcohol was viewed as archaic and backwards. For some Canadians, this warranted a loosening of the attachment to Britain and the Empire in favour of Canada. The Canadian's experience of alcohol in Hastings may, therefore, point to how Canada was moving away from Britain and the Empire and strengthening its own sense of self. This aspect warrants further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas the 20th century could be largely characterized as the age of cannabis prohibition, the 21st century may ultimately be known as the era of cannabis legalization. Although several countries and subnational jurisdictions have relaxed laws to allow cannabis to be used for medical purposes, the policy landscape shifted dramatically in 2012 when voters in Colorado and Washington passed ballot initiatives to allow cannabis to be sold to adults for nonmedical purposes. Since then, Canada, Uruguay, and Malta have legalized nonmedical cannabis, and >47% of the US population live in states that have passed laws allowing commercial production and for-profit retail sales. Some countries are now implementing pilot programs for legal supply (eg, the Netherlands, Switzerland), and others are seriously contemplating changing their laws (eg, Germany, Mexico). This commentary offers 9 insights from the first 10 years of legal cannabis for nonmedical purposes, with the goal of informing policy discussions in places considering, implementing, or revising their approach to cannabis legalization: (1) cannabis prices are declining in places with commercial regimes and this matters for several outcomes; (2) noncommercial models are being implemented and seriously considered in some places; (3) policy discussions about cannabis taxes are evolving; (4) the number of cannabis products available in commercial regimes is proliferating; (5) emerging research on higher potency cannabis products raises some public health concerns, but there is still a lot to learn; (6) social equity is playing a larger role in many legalization debates; (7) it takes time to move consumers to the legal market; (8) data collection about cannabis consumption is getting better, but there is much work to do; and (9) ongoing methodological advances should improve our understanding of cannabis policy changes., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The 1920s American alcohol prohibition is notorious but not unique. Quite a few countries went through a vigorous struggle. But it is in Canada in 1898 that the very first national referendum on prohibition in the world took place. In this article, we focus on this rare and neglected event in Canadian history, in which the government came close but finally did not impose prohibition. In our empirical analysis, we use census district-level data to investigate how the shares of Yes, No and Abstentions vary according to four sets of factors: religious, demographic, social and economic. Our results confirm the literature on temperance and prohibition with religion [Evangelicals against Catholics and Anglicans] as the key explanatory variable, followed by the heterogeneity of the population, measured by the proportion of foreign-born. Urbanization has also the expected (although small) impact. Results for wealth are mixed. The economic interest rationale is not confirmed but that can be explained by the historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Law & Society/Revue Canadienne Droit et Societe (University of Toronto Press) is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Deviance et Societe is the property of Medecine et Hygiene and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Historically, the poppy plant has had multiple uses including as a food product and with medical uses in pain relief; today it is most commonly known as the plant from which heroin is derived. The United Nations international drug control regime currently only allows legal poppy production for medical use in 19 countries. Although Mexico is the third largest illegal poppy producer in the world, no Latin American country is currently allowed to legally produce poppies. Meanwhile, the United States and Canada are experiencing an overdose crisis due in large part to the adulteration and substitution of heroin with fentanyl and its analogues, while the price of opium gum has dropped 80% in the last two years in poppy producing areas of Mexico. The prohibition of opium has wide ranging health and development impacts that bring up a moral imperative regarding the safe supply of diverse opium-based products -including opium gum and heroin- that urgently need to be explored and addressed. Opium gum can be used orally or smoked, reducing riskier modes of administration and possible fatal overdoses. This article discusses the political and legal possibilities of safely supplying opium gum and manually extracted heroin from Mexico to Canada as a public health, harm reduction and development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]