I grew up hearing the stories of "Moonshine Kills." Later in life, I learned that this was an anti-moonshine campaign mounted by the federal government. I read stories that stated that, in most cases, the problem was not really the moonshiners making poison whiskey, it was the bootleggers and "speak easy" owners that would often add poisonous ingredients like formaldehyde and wood alcohol to water-down the shine thus making it go further.

Check out this story. It adds a whole new spin on things. Unbelievable.

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http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/?GT1=38001

The pure moonshine we make, before doing things like aging in wood etc. is actually far safer and less likely to give any trouble at all compared to store bought booze. Poison in my mind is some store bought boozes (a certain product from a dry county in Tennessee comes to mind) that gives me a headache to read the label!

You can't poison yourself (with reasonable consumption) with moonshine if: you make your wash with edible ingredients, you use clean well built lead free equipment, and only add edible food grade ingredients to your spirits and cordials.

I agree.
I find it almost, not totally, unbelievable that the US govt poisoned the stuff in order to discourage its use.

Let's be honest: if a fellar doesn't cut his corn back aways with spring water, he might not be here next spring, when gettin' drunk leads to bigger mouthfuls, and that warm, dark embrace of forgetfulness...well, you know the story. So, yeah, moonshine can kill, and Big Macs, too, so what's the deal already? Taxes, man, that is what it is all about.