#100 Intoxicating Eardrops 🎧

We have hit a century! Thank you for reading us.<br/><br/>This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question:&#160;how do I think about a particular public policy problem/solution?<br/><br/>PS: If you enjoy listening instead of reading, we have this edition available as an audio narration on all podcasting platforms courtesy the good folks at&#160;<a href="https://www.ad-auris.com/">Ad-Auris</a>. <br/><br/>PolicyWTF:&#160;Prohibition and Morality<br/><br/>This section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen?<br/><br/>&#8212; Pranay Kotasthane<br/><br/>If one were to write a book chronicling bans on <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/law/victimless-crime">victimless crimes</a> in India, the index entry for Morarji Desai would be a long one. After all, he holds the dubious distinction of turning lakhs of ordinary citizens into criminals by prohibiting two independent victimless crimes. <br/><br/>The first ban, on alcohol, is rather well-known. The notorious Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949 was passed when Desai was the state&#8217;s Home Minister. To enforce the ban, the government created elaborate compliance machinery, misdirecting the limited policing capacity towards apprehending tipplers instead of protecting victims of other crimes. By the time this act was watered down in 1964, more than four lakh people had been convicted under Prohibition! The draconian law is well-documented in Rohit De&#8217;s excellent book <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Peoples-Constitution-Rohit/dp/0691192553">The People&#8217;s Constitution. </a>Read this, for instance:<br/><br/>&#8220;The BPA granted vast powers to the police and Prohibition officers. It empowered Prohibitio