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madd criticized as neo-prohibitionists (and they are)

 abuse

No longer a voice against stopping the horrors of drunk driving, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is now a group that is increasingly dedicated to re-enacting the Failed "Noble Experiment" of alcohol Prohibition.

A little history via Wikipedia:

Under substantial pressure from the temperance movement, the United States Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917. Having been approved by 36 states, the 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919 and effected on January 16, 1920

The "Volstead Act", the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, passed through Congress over President Woodrow Wilson's veto on October 28, 1919 and established the legal definition of intoxicating liquor.

Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. Mafiabootlegging manifested in response to the effect of Prohibition.[12]Racketeering. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle. groups limited their activities to gambling and thievery until 1920, when organized A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies, leading to

The cost of enforcing Prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on alcohol (some $500 million annually nationwide) affected government coffers.

When repeal of Prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption) because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores.

In short, it was a ridiculous attempt to wish away a problem by banning something, and had the unintended consquences of causing death and mayhem through criminal violence -- as the market for alcohol never disappeared, it just went underground.  

Yet MADD seems intent on trying to get the Volstead Act reinstated.  In 1999, MADD’s National Board of Directors unanimously voted to change the organization’s mission statement to include the prevention of underage drinking. Not underage drinking and driving — just drinking. Let me say that again: MADD has now formally shifted its focus away from "drunk driving" and towards the broader "problem" of drinking. 

Now, they criticize the much publicized Beer Summit not for its charged political content, but for the mere fact that it happened at all.  Apparently, four grown men having a beer, notably while none of whom were driving, is cause for their concern. Nancy Dell, the president of MADD's Delaware Chapter, criticized the event for "sending the wrong message to children."

The message that grown people may have a single beer and not drive? 

 The American Beverage Institute, the lobbying arm of the beer and spirit industry was incensed.

“That someone in a position of leadership at MADD would criticize President Obama for simply drinking beer, illustrates the neoprohibitionist mentality that now dominates the group.”

“MADD is no longer an organization that opposes drunk driving, but an anti-alcohol group that has been hijacked by the modern day temperance movement,” said Sarah Longwell, ABI Managing Director.

Of course, MADD denies that they aremodern prohibitionists. Their actions, however, speak differently.  MADD has even been denounced by its founder Candy Lightner as ‘very neo-prohibitionist

"[MADD has] become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned ...," Lightner is quoted as saying in an Aug. 6, 2005 story in the Washington Times. "I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving," she said.

And you are paying for this: . MADD gets millions of dollars in federal and state funding, and has a quasi-official relationship with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In some jurisdictions, DWI defendants are sentenced to attend and pay for alcoholic-recovery groups sponsored by MADD, according to the CATO Institute.

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