The Gin Craze was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of gin increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London. Daniel Defoe commented: "the Distillers have found out a way to hit the palate of the Poor, by their new fashion'd compound Waters called Geneva, so that the common People seem not to value the French-brandy as usual, and even not to desire it". Many people overconsumed and the city had an epidemic of extreme drunkenness; this provoked moral outrage and a legislative backlash that some compare to the modern drug wars.