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Prohibition Of Alcohol In The 1920's

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During the 1920s, a national ban on alcohol was rumored to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, and improve health and hygiene in America. This era of banned alcohol, was called Prohibition. This law passed, banning all production on alcohol was enforced, leading to illegal production of alcohol, executed in many different ways. This time era and circumstances have roughly shaped America today. When Prohibition first went into effect, the alcohol consumption rate was 30 percent lower than before. It started with religious leaders leading the movement. By the 1900s, temperance societies were common in communities across the United States. Women played a large part in the temperance movement, alcohol was seen as a negative force in marriage. There was an Anti-Saloon League that …show more content…

Factory owners also supported Prohibition in order to prevent accidents and increase the quality of their workers. World War I also added fuel to the Prohibitionist’s movements. Ideas spread that the brewing and distilling industries were taking precious grain, molasses, and labor from wartime production. The nation was not going to give up that easily, alcohol was available through a physician’s prescription and there were now bootleggers to produce alcohol and speakeasies to serve it. During Prohibition, doctors were able to prescribe liquor to patients on a specially designed government prescription form that could be filled at any pharmacy. When medicinal whiskey stocks were low, the government would increase its production. Alcohol prescriptions soared and a significant amount of the supplies meant for the “sick” were taken by bootleggers. Keep in mind that this was during the Depression, there was no funding of jobs, bootleggers were supplying jobs and making money. Churches and clergy also had a provision. It allowed them to receive wine

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