The Negative Impact of American Prohibition

Although the temperance movement was concerned with the habitual drunk, its primary goal was total abstinence and the elimination of liquor. With the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the well-organized and powerful political organizations, utilizing no holds barred political tactics, successfully accomplished their goal. Prohibition became the law of the land on January 16, 1920; the manufacturing, importation, and sale of alcohol was no longer legal in the United States. Through prohibition, America embarked on what became labeled “the Nobel Experiment.” However, instead of having social redeeming values as ordained, prohibition had the opposite effect of its intended purpose, becoming a catastrophic failure.

-Soon the mob and gangsters take the advantage of this new prohibition and start to smuggling and bootlegging alcohols. Alcohol are smuggled in from mainly two places Mexico and Canada, and each year Canada roughly export a million gallons of alcohol to US. Soon the mob and gangster’s little business is getting quite profitable.

Prohibition was an act to try to cure Canada’s broken society, but in several ways was a failed experiment. What was also known as the temperance movement was a “path to hell paved with good intentions”. Provinces went dry as the temperance movement began to deprive the country of the substance that eased pain for many and created good times and laughter for others by shutting down brewery’s and other alcohol related business’, in order to satisfy the political and religious groups who believed alcohol was breaking apart our Canadian society. Drunkenness was believed to be a main factor in social problems, organized crime and mental/physical health issues.

Many other rum runners were transporting alcohol across the great lakes into Detroit and Chicago up the mississippi river to new orleans and many other places.

“For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground.” jello biafra said this referring to when every time the government tries to ban or regulate something, people are trying to get out around the law. The 18th Amendment started in January of 1920 to December of 1933 to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce tax burden created because of prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene on America. It was a miserable failure on all accounts. Prohibition had a reverse effect on the people of the U.S. due to the damage it did to the economy, the corruption of officials in the us government, and how it was one of the government's worst failures in U.S. history.

The focus of this research will surround the Prohibition era in Illinois. Research conducted about the impact that Prohibition had in Chicago will provide a narrative about how the banning of alcohol impacted urban areas. That will then be compared to research done on the impact of Prohibition on rural Illinois in particular southwest and southern Illinois. The purpose of this research is to provide answers as to how Prohibition affected the Illinoisan’s domestic and family life, the economies in these regions, the increase of crime rate and racketeering, and the effects it had on American health and alcoholism. The American 1920s has always been one of most fascinating eras of study for me. However, the effect that the Volstead Act and Eightteenth

The 1920’s of America was a time of many dramatic social and political changes. New fads arose, the economy changed, and thousands of people were transitioning from rural to urban areas. During this time, new amendments emerged, like the 18th amendment. The 18th amendment, prohibition, may have seemed like a positive thing at the time, but it caused countless problems like increased crime rates, the court system and law enforcement became corrupted, and the making of homemade alcohol increased.

Thornton acknowledges this “annual per capita consumption had been declining since 1901 even reaching an all time low during the depression of 1921, [on the other hand it] began to increase in 1922. Alcohol has become a tradition and many didn’t want it taken away, so many continues to drink sparking an underground

During the time of Prohibition, citizen wanted to consume alcohol; furthermore; bootleggers would transport the alcohol to the illegal saloons (Dudley 94). “Prohibition has led to increased drinking of intoxicating liquor on the part of women and children” (Dudley 96). The main objective of Prohibition was to determinate the drinkage of; however, according to Mr. Stayton, Prohibition had created the opposite (Dudley 96). While Prohibition was still valid, people had still wanted to consume alcohol; moreover, there was more crime that violated the Eighteenth Amendment (Dudley 96). As a result of Prohibition, crime had increased (Dudley 96). “It being estimated by United States District Attorney buckner of New York that it would require an appropriation of at least $75,000,000 a year to restrain the commercialized

Most Americans were beginning to lead a life away from religion, and often consumed alcohol they attained from “speakeasies”, or even produce their own liquor called “moonshine” or “bathtub gin”. With the growing illegal consumption of alcohol during prohibition, the crime rates sky rocketed; but law enforcement simply could not keep up with the amount of crime happening. Since police were busy with simple crimes such as one consuming alcohol illegally, there was little to no time for them to focus on keeping citizens safe. Due to this fact and the fact that the government could no longer maintain safe alcohol manufacturing, there were many dangers associated with ‘bootlegged’ alcohol. These dangers included; “blindness,” if gotten into the eyes, “paralysis and even death” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015). With the distribution of unsafe ‘bootlegged’ alcohol, many Americans died; raising the death rate throughout the nation. While the population fell apart politically and socially with chaos and rebellion, the United States also experienced a huge economic downfall due to

Destruction, debt, damage––just a few words that describe the dark age of Prohibition. America, in the midst of a decade of booming economy, thriving art, and post-war excitement, became shrouded in the dark cloud of Prohibition. The years following would be tainted with illegal behavior, sneakiness, and a culture desperate for alcoholic libation. It’s easy to claim that while the 1920’s were certainly “roaring,” they would have truly been the Golden Age, if not for the Prohibition.

So most of the times there would be ingredients that should be in the alcohol. '' Now that alcohol was no longer subject to health inspection, various ingredients were used to make homemade liquor and brew, many of which were harmful or even fatal, nevertheless, the illeg0al alcohol market was generating millions of dollars per year (Coffey).'' Many citizens that depended on alcohol to survive, would do anything and everything in their power to get their hands on it. And they do not care what they are ingesting, they just want that free feeling that alcohol gives them. ''Above all, many Americans with a taste of liquor were determined to get hold of a drink one way or another (Sandbrook).'' Often times it would kill the person, but they did not care what it did to their body. It was also very expensive to buy from bootleggers, or on the black market. ''Almost immediately after Prohibition began, Hardware stores began selling portable stills. Distilleries in Canada and Mexico flourished as ''Rum Runners'' smuggled liquor across the borders to sell on the black market (Coffey).'' Like any law there is always going to be a black market, underground source that is making money hand over fist. In fact in this case distilleries in Canada and Mexico made some profit . Alcohol that you buy could be laced with a deadly chemical, but that is the risk you take to have just that one drink, that one drink could be your last

When the Prohibition era in the United States began on January 19, 1920, a few sage observers predicted it would not go well. Certainly, previous attempts to outlaw the use of alcohol in American history had fared poorly. When a Massachusetts town banned the sale of alcohol in 1844, an enterprising tavern owner took to charging patrons for the price of seeing a striped pig—the drinks came free with the price of admission. When Maine passed a strict prohibition law in 1851, the result was not temperance, but resentment among the city's working class and Irish immigrant population. A deadly riot in Portland in 1855 lead to the law's repeal. Now, Prohibition was being implemented on a national scale, and being enshrined in the Constitution no less. What followed was a litany of unintended consequences.

Prohibition in the United States was an extent intended to decrease drinking by removing the businesses that produced, dispersed, and retailed alcoholic beverages. The 18 Amendment made an approval to the United States Constitution that bared the production, transference and trade of hallucinogenic liquors. Conversely, this piloted a historical Crusades recognized as the Prohibition movement (Asbury, 1950). At that time the well-known temperance movement was demanding and had little or no affect even though the legislation was behind them. This was during the 20th century when they were recognized as the Volstead Act. Unfortunately, this sparked the illegal surge and fabrication of the distribution of liquor (referred as bootlegging), which created alternative areas the initiated gang fierceness and numerous crime activity that conquering of the Prohibition movement that terminated at the end of the 20’s (Levinthal, 2016). Unfortunately, the United States realized that the prohibition was very draining and costly and looked for other substitutions and approaches. Eventually, the nation surge of alcohol prohibition changed to local procedures of regulation.

I would argue yes but not for the reasons so far given. ArchView, a research group based in California have suggested that by 2020, the marjiuana market in the United States could exceed $21.8billion. In four years. That's simply phenomenal!