Natural experiments involving changes in alcoholic beverage availability are valuable opportunities to examine the corresponding associated changes in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. Usually one is able to examine the relationship between changes in availability and consumption (all other things being equal), changes in consumption and problems and/or changes in availability and problems (see Giesbrecht et al., 1982; Smart, 1979; Makela, 1974; Blose and Holder, 1987; and Holder and Blose, 1987).

Mississippi was the last state in the United States to repeal prohibition, in 1966, and provides a good opportunity for a case study of the effects of changes in the legal availability of alcoholic beverages on consumption. The hypotheses addressed in this paper are that increased legal availability of alcoholic beverages following repeal of a state's prohibition would result in increased consumption, which would, in turn, result in an increase in alcohol-related problems. Both anecdotal data of alcohol consumption during prohibition and per capita sales of distilled spirits following prohibition for Mississippi in comparison with surrounding states are used to analyze changes in consumption before and after prohibition. Rates from 1950 to 1985 for total alcohol-related mortality (deaths from liver cirrhosis, alcoholism and alcohol poisonings), suicide and homicide mortality, and traffic and non-traffic mortality are used to analyze changes in alcoholrelated mortality for the state.

Mississippi has maintained a remarkably homogeneous population over time. The white population is primarily of British, Scots-Irish and Northern European ancestry, with most being at least second generation Mississippians. Mississippi's black population was in the majority until 1940, when a large outmigration occurred to Northern cities. By 1980, only 35% of the state's population was black, and almost all were nativeborn Mississippians. Mississippi's population has remained relatively stable, with a high birth rate offsetting emigration of both blacks and whites. Mississippi is largely a rural state; more than half of the land area is in commercial forests. It was not until 1965, the year before Mississippi repealed state prohibition, that industrial income surpassed agricultural income. The state has historically been politically and religiously conservative, with Baptists and United Methodists predominating. The Mississippi Gulf Coast area has remained more heterogeneous, including a number of Catholics of French and Spanish ancestry. Mississippi has continued to have the highest illiteracy and infant mortality rates and the lowest per capita income of any state in the Union (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1985).

Alcohol control before and during national prohibition Mississippi's long history of alcohol control policy began in 1850, when the legislature passed a measure by which communities could vote to permit or ban alcohol sales. In 1886, a local option law was passed that provided for the holding of local option elections throughout the entire state. The first public prohibition meeting in Mississippi was held in 1881, although statewide constitutional prohibition was not voted on until 1904. Although the measure received a majority vote at the time (66 to 43), the bill was lost because it failed to receive the two-thirds majority required. In January 1908 statewide prohibition was successfully passed, 10 years before Mississippi adopted the resolution providing for ratification of the prohibitory amendment to the U.S. Federal Constitution. Mississippi was the first state in the Union to ratify federal prohibition. A "bone dry" law was put on the state statute books: "No whiskey for any purpose whatsoever could be shipped into the State and no person could have, control or possess any whiskey whatsoever" (Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem, p. 1786, 1928). Exceptions were made for wine for sacramental purposes and grain or pure alcohol for medicinal purposes. …