Pros And Cons Of Moonshining

Moonshining has always been a popular topic. It has also been a huge problem for the government. While moonshine could lead to serious, possibly fatal, health risks, it should not be legalized and taxed because illegal moonshining will always be around and also the government is just trying to traffic money into their own hands. Government officials try hard to stop the building of distilleries and the production of illegal moonshine. According to ALE agents, 34 illegal distilleries were discovered in North Carolina since the year 2010, not including the liquor stills that local sheriffs had seized and destroyed (Ball). With the many different ways to transport and hide liquor stills the government would have to patrol rivers, lakes,
With so many different ingredients that shiners can use to make moonshine, and different ways to make it, serious risks are involved. Any moonshiner who would take precautions to their customers should know that the first few cups of moonshine of a batch should be tossed out due to impurities, like poisonous methanol alcohol (Devlin). A really big concern about illegal moonshiners was that some shiners would use car radiators as condensers, which were often put together with lead. Lead is toxic, even in small amounts (Devlin). It also serves no function in the body and could cause lead poisoning which can lead to memory loss, brain swelling, paralysis, or even death (Grabianowski). According to David Hanson, “A study of moonshine…produced at 48 different stills found that 43 of the 48 samples had lead levels ranging from five to 599 parts per billion (ppb). Over half the samples contained lead levels exceeding federal water guidelines of 15 ppb,” (Grabianowski). Approximately 80% of all adult lead poisoning deaths have to do with consumption of moonshine (Grabianowski). Along with the lead troubles, radiators also contain traces of leftover antifreeze, which contains ethylene glycol, which is fatal (Devlin). Another popular place to produce illegal moonshine is in the woods (Devlin). This causes possible health risks due to the fact that it is in less than sterile conditions and the mash attracting all kinds of insects and rodents (Devlin). Going along with health risks, the ingredients can be altered. The required ingredients include: corn, sugar, yeast, and water (Devlin). Because it is the cheapest and easy to obtain, corn is the most often used but it can be substituted with barley, rye, fruit, or hog feed, which can be purchased in large quantities without arousing suspicion (Devlin). To increase their products potency, shiners have been known to include bizarre