There were many ways to get around the laws against alcohol during Prohibition, but for the poor, those workarounds could come at a high price. Jamaica Ginger was a patent medicine that had been around for a hundred years already when Prohibition began. Like many medicines, it contained a high percentage of alcohol, but you were only supposed to take it a spoon at a time for whatever ailed you. But when there was no other alcohol, you could get a two-ounce bottle of Jamaica Ginger for fifty cents and have the equivalent of around four shots. The popular medicine came to be called Jake for short. Government authorities tooknotice, and so required Jamaica Ginger manufacturers to add enough ginger to make Jake unpalatable.
Some manufacturers looked for a way around the regulation, which included testing. They found that tri-orthocresyl phosphate (TOCP) could make Jamaica ginger pass the test without ruining the taste of the medicine. The only problem was that TCOP is a powerful neurotoxin that caused paralysis. Beginning in 1931, doctors were confronted with cases of muscle failure and paralysis among poor men that couldn't be explained. Even when the cause was found, assistance was egregiously absent, and men who displayed symptoms of "Jake Leg" were ridiculed. Read the story of adulterated Jamaica Ginger and what it did at Deranged LA Crimes. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Deltabeignet)
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