Romulan Ale is illegal

[RoJoHen]

Romulan Ale is supposedly illegal, but there are MANY times where we see our main characters drinking the stuff.

So here's the question: what are the laws surrounding Romulan Ale?

Is it illegal in the Federation? If so, why do Starfleet officers drink it so much, and where do they get it?

Is it a Romulan law? Perhaps it is something they choose not to export. Perhaps the law is that non-Romulans are not allowed to drink it. If so, I can see it being easier for other races to get it through certain channels. And what the Romulans don't know won't hurt them.

And it's not like people are particularly discreet about it, either. Worf was sick from Romulan Ale at the wedding in Nemesis!

 

[robjkay]

Romulan Ale is supposedly illegal, but there are MANY times where we see our main characters drinking the stuff.

So here's the question: what are the laws surrounding Romulan Ale?

Is it illegal in the Federation? If so, why do Starfleet officers drink it so much, and where do they get it?

Is it a Romulan law? Perhaps it is something they choose not to export. Perhaps the law is that non-Romulans are not allowed to drink it. If so, I can see it being easier for other races to get it through certain channels. And what the Romulans don't know won't hurt them.

And it's not like people are particularly discreet about it, either. Worf was sick from Romulan Ale at the wedding in Nemesis!

I guess due to the Neutral Zone between Romulan & Federation, there is some sort of embargo between the two races to where both races do not perform any trade with one another.

The reason we Romulan Ale outside Romulan space is due to hijacking and smuggling. Due to this its more then likely its sold on the black market or at places where there is not many laws.

Being alot of Federation starships are far away, Romulan Ale is easily obtainable and there is nobody around to stop a person getting a bottle or two. Lets remember what Kirk said when asked by a Klingon about asked about Romulan Ale being served at the dinner table in ST: IV; "Its one of the advantages of being a thousand light years from Federation Headquaters".

 

[M'Sharak]

Romulan Ale is supposedly illegal, but there are MANY times where we see our main characters drinking the stuff.

So here's the question: what are the laws surrounding Romulan Ale?

Is it illegal in the Federation? If so, why do Starfleet officers drink it so much, and where do they get it?

My take is that Romulan Ale is an embargoed item, much as Cuban cigars are in the U.S.: technically illegal, but obtainable without too much trouble, if one has the right connections. More a political obstacle than a practical one, in other words.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The law is: you can drink all the Romulan ale you can get your hands on, but this rarely happens when T'Bonz gets there first.

 

[Sci]

The DS9 episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" established that Romulan Ale was illegal in the Federation because of a trade embargo imposed upon the Romulan Star Empire by the United Federation of Planets some unspecified time in the past. That embargo was lifted during the Federation-Romulan alliance during the Dominion War; it was apparently re-instated after the alliance broke down some time prior to Star Trek: Nemesis, since NEM established once again that it was illegal.

Trade embargoes aside, however, it would appear that the Federation's attempt at prohibition of Romulan Ale is no more effective than the United States's present-day war on drugs, given the relative ease with which Starfleet officers -- and, presumably, normal citizens -- can acquire the stuff.

 

[CaptainStoner]

And I wonder if it turns your pee blue or green ?

 

[Space Cowboy]

Yep, for the most part, Romulan Ale = Cuban Cigars. I always wondered if there was a touch of absinthe to the Romulan ale parallel.

 

[EEE]

Illegal? Not in Nevada! You can buy it by the six pack (or the case) at Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek Experience store. In fact I have a six pack sitting next to me now, but I wonder if that makes me an intergalactic smuggler or a plain smuggler? I don't think it would make me an intergalactic smuggler, as it appears to be bottled by a terran venture. I've not drunk any yet, so I cannot comment on what color the end result would be, as asked above.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I always wondered if there was a touch of absinthe to the Romulan ale parallel.

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

 

[Carpe Occasio]

After drinking a sizable amount of Romulan ale in celebration of William Riker and Deanna Troi's wedding in 2379, Worf, obviously suffering its effects, stated that "Romulan ale should be illegal", to which Geordi La Forge replied, "It is." (Star Trek Nemesis)

 

[M'Sharak]

Illegal? Not in Nevada! You can buy it by the six pack (or the case) at Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek Experience store. In fact I have a six pack sitting next to me now, but I wonder if that makes me an intergalactic smuggler or a plain smuggler? I don't think it would make me an intergalactic smuggler, as it appears to be bottled by a terran venture.

Currently bottled by a brewery in El Salvador, as I understand it, though I think it had previously been produced by a major Mexican brewing company.

I always wondered if there was a touch of absinthe to the Romulan ale parallel.

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

Odd, I thought there was something in there about a Honda.

 

[EEE]

Illegal? Not in Nevada! You can buy it by the six pack (or the case) at Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek Experience store. In fact I have a six pack sitting next to me now, but I wonder if that makes me an intergalactic smuggler or a plain smuggler? I don't think it would make me an intergalactic smuggler, as it appears to be bottled by a terran venture.

Currently bottled by a brewery in El Salvador, as I understand it, though I think it had previously been produced by a major Mexican brewing company.

(This particular shipment was imported from Guatemala)

 

[pookha]

i have lots of ale

 

[Carpe Occasio]

Romulan Ale recipe:

375 ml Bacardi 151 rum
375 ml Everclear alcohol
375 ml Blue Curacao liqueur

Combine ingredients in a (just over) one-liter bottle. Chill in freezer for two hours. Serve in shot glasses.

Everclear is a kick-ass alcohol (dangerous in fact, just read the bottle). Add rum and Blue Curacao and it will hammer even a Klingon.

 

[McCoy]

When it was first mentioned in TOS my impression was that it was illegal because of its effects. I can't remember the dialogue though.

 

[Carpe Occasio]

When it was first mentioned in TOS my impression was that it was illegal because of its effects. I can't remember the dialogue though.

In the script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it states that when Kirk and McCoy drink Romulan Ale, it is an "instant drunk."

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I always wondered if there was a touch of absinthe to the Romulan ale parallel.

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

Which is now available in the United States and something I'd recently had at a dinner party. I kinda imagine that Romulan Ale produces a similar intoxicated effect. It was a different kind of buzz fo' sure.

 

[McCoy]

When it was first mentioned in TOS my impression was that it was illegal because of its effects. I can't remember the dialogue though.

In the script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it states that when Kirk and McCoy drink Romulan Ale, it is an "instant drunk."

Thanks.

Love the avatar.

 

[Timo]

Theoretically, we could argue that the Romulan stuff is banned for more than the obvious dramatic reasons, at least in the 24th century. After all, there's a market for synthehol which, as per "Relics" and "Someone to Watch Over Me", seems to have reduced intoxicating effects. Since the stuff is still obviously very popular, even among people who also value the occasional hard drink, one might postulate that 24th century Federation attitudes go against serious intoxication, and that there is wide agreement on laws that ban dangerously intoxicating substances.

Worf is no stranger to alcohol and intoxication, but as per ST:NEM, he's not opposed to the idea of banning a substance for its excessively intoxicating effects - in fact, he seems to seriously want such a ban. (And yes, apparently it's being drunk he's worried about, not hangover, judging by when he says that line.)

It could also simply be that Romulan ale is so poisonous to humans and other non-Vulcanoids that it is banned simply as a health hazard. Lifting that ban during the war would be a political gesture that would quickly be reversed when health politics again overruled foreign politics.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[erastus25]

Romulan Ale recipe:

375 ml Bacardi 151 rum
375 ml Everclear alcohol
375 ml Blue Curacao liqueur

Combine ingredients in a (just over) one-liter bottle. Chill in freezer for two hours. Serve in shot glasses.

Everclear is a kick-ass alcohol (dangerous in fact, just read the bottle). Add rum and Blue Curacao and it will hammer even a Klingon.

That recipe should be illegal everywhere! Talk about dangerous...now I have to try it, of course.

I always wondered why nobody simply did some chemical decomposition of Romulan Ale in the ST universe and started making his/her own. Presumably that wouldn't be illegal.