American Council on Alcohol Problems: Temperance Group Today

The American Council on Alcohol Problems (ACAP) is a prohibition-oriented federation of state affiliates. It currently promotes a neo-prohibitionist agenda to stigmatize alcohol and marginalize those adults who choose to have a single drink. Even its logo shows a bottle of alcohol crossed out.

American Council on Alcohol ProblemsThe Council was known as the Anti-Saloon League from 1893 until 1948. Then it was the Temperance League until 1950. Next it was the National Temperance League until 1964. It’s now the American Council on Alcohol Problems (ACAP). So now the name doesn’t revealed its true goal of temperance and prohibition.

Temperance Goal

But a recent issue of its The American Issue describes the group its purpose. It reports the Council “is the channel of cooperation” through which temperance supporters and groups can unite and cooperate.”

The ACAP “provides the forum and the mechanism through which concerned persons can find common ground on alcohol and other drug problems and address those issues with a united voice.”

It continues that “Membership in ACAP presently is made up of 30 local temperance groups, 22 national Christian denominations, and other fraternal organizations that support the ACAP’s philosophy of abstinence.” By “22 Christian denominations,” the Council apparently means 22 individual churches and religious groups.

It also operated the National Temperance and Prohibition Council between 1934 and 1956.

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The Council has regularly partnered with George Hacker‘s Alcohol  Policies Project. That’s part of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. It’s also temperance-oriented group.

The headquarters of ACAP is in Birmingham, Alabama. However, it maintains a strong presence in Washington, D.C. for its lobbying activities.

Success

Surprisingly, almost one of every five U.S. adults supports making drinking alcohol illegal for everyone. Not even National Prohibition (1920-1933) went that far. That is, it didn’t make drinking illegal. So millions of people drank alcohol legally during Prohibition. Learn more at What did Prohibition Prohibit? It Wasn’t Drinking Alcohol. 

Resources: American Council on Alcohol Problems

    • American Council on Alcohol Problems. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
    • Asbury, H. The Great Illusion. NY: Greenwood, 1968.
    • Hanson, D. Alcohol Education. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
    • Kobler, J. The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. NY: Putnam’s Sons, 1973.
    • Krout, J. The Origins of Prohibition. NY: Knopf, 1925.