The Inintended Consequences of Alcohol Prohibition in The Unite States in the 1920s

January 19th of 1919 marks the era of the nation-wide alcohol prohibition in America. The ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the United States, which caused majors shifts in society and the nation as a whole. Several years later, in 1933, the Twenty-First Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution and repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. As stated in Section 1 of Amendment XXI, “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed” (U.S. Constitution). While both the Eighteenth Amendment and the Twenty-First Amendment brought major changes to America, the Eighteenth Amendment had more of a negative effect on the nation than the Twenty-First because the economy and public health both declined, and crime rates skyrocketed. In 1928, President Herbert Hoover described prohibition as, “A great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose” (Hoover). Unfortunately, the Eighteenth Amendment was only a failed experiment.

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.

The rise of mass disobedience to prohibition took the amendment’s supporters by surprise. Working class consumption moved from the saloon to the home, backyard stills and bathtub gin replaced the mass-produced alcoholic items that were no longer available and those who could afford to flocked to speakeasies. All of those who produced booze at home or partook of the glamour and glitz of the speakeasy were breaking the law, but doing so was considered chic and to a large percentage of Americans a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Society culture largely ignored the act while immigrant and working-class culture was unduly affected by the act. The closure of all alcohol-related businesses was a reason for a rise in unemployment. People were struggling to feed their own families and were forced to turn towards the trade of illegal alcohol. Making booze was a quick and easy method during hard times to feed your family. Turning the unemployed bar workers, restaurant workers, brewery workers, distillery workers, and the packaging and delivery people into criminals for doing what had prior been their lawful profession.

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.

The Prohibition during the 1920s has been widely scrutinized and is often used as an example today to show how banning a specific substance after it has been in wide circulation is a wasted effort. Many historians, economists, and Americans have analyzed the complications during the Prohibition and have culminated their thoughts to provide an accurate and in depth analysis of what caused the Prohibition to fail. Similarly, experts have presented data that shows just how drastically each year differed from one another during the Prohibition. However, there are many factors that affected each individual year that ultimately culminated to not only a universal distaste for the Prohibition, but for a complete repeal of the ban on alcohol nearly ten years later. Although the Prohibition is widely considered a failure in the sense that it did not properly moderate the selling and drinking of alcohol, the basic idea upon which the Prohibition was founded can be used to moderate drinking in a different manner that may better society as a whole.

In January 1920 the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of American took effect in the beginning of Prohibition. That is, that laws preventing the sale, shipment, and distribution of alcohol beverages in the United States. It was no sudden impulse of Congress and or the states, this came after eighty years of agitation, political posturing and being sick of crime rates being outrageous. Daniel Okrent seeks to explain the build up to the era passage of the Amendments, the public’s activities in the age of Prohibition, the ultimate repeal of the law by the 21st Amendment, and the final outcomes of how this affected everything.

permanent was its increased profitability. After the implementation of prohibition, the price of alcohol went up dramatically. During prohibition, the price of beer went up 600%, and the price of gin went up 520%. (Kyvig, 1979). This made the sale of illegal spirits more profitable to bootleggers. The alcohol trade was a lucrative practice. Bootleggers smuggled alcohol into the country and sold it at tremendous profits. Therefore, because alcohol was more profitable to sell during prohibition, it was more widely consumed. The levels of consumption never reached those of pre-prohibition times, but alcohol use in the United States was not totally eliminated. "National prohibition substantially reduced, but did not altogether eliminate, the use of alcoholic beverages"(Kyvig, 1979).

In the 1920’s and 1930’s alcohol was made illegal and the prohibition of alcohol was characterized in two different ways. Some people viewed it to cause more harm than good, while others suggested it was the right thing to do. Although the consumption of too much alcohol has bad effects, I personally believe the 18th amendment was not the wisest choice. Since it was banned this caused crime rates to increase, jobs to decrease, and the increase of speakeasies.

The prohibition movement took action in the 1920’s when Congress issued the 18th Amendment. This put a ban on the selling, manufacturing, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. The intent of the 18th Amendment was to reduce the crime rates and social issues in which alcohol played a part in causing, as well as developing better health and hygiene for members of society in the 1920’s. Although prohibition had a positive intent, it had negative outcomes, such as the rise of organized crime, increased death rates, and more alcoholics than the amount before prohibition. Despite the negative impact prohibition had on the nation during the time, it has positively impacted our nation in the long run. The prohibition movement ultimately positively

In the 1920’s the prohibition of one substance controlled the people of the United States along with many businesses causing the economy to plummet. This particular substance was alcohol. In 1926, William H. Sayton argued that prohibition was a failure rather than a success (Dudley 94). William Sayton was the founder and leader of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment which began in the year 1922 (Dudley 94). Mr. Sayton noted that prohibition was not effective due to the increase of alcohol usage and the decrease of economical growth (Dudley 96). One should concur that the illegalization of alcohol impacted the United States in a negative way, and was a failure.

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

Prohibition Alcohol is an integral part of contemporary and 1920’s society . The 1920’s gave way to the rise of alcohol culture, through the 18th amendment by the outlawing of the sale, transportation, and manufacturing of alcohol. The subsequent public disobedience of prohibition led to a corruption of morals, government, and the emergence of organised crime which still plagues America today. Prohibition was a time that garnered immense crime, poverty and passion.

The prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s to 30’s in the United States is one of most famous or infamous times in recent American history. The intention was to reduce the consumption of alcohol by eliminating businesses that manufactured, distributed and sold it. According to this law, all the manufacturer and sale of drinks even the transport of drinks which content over 0.5% of alcohol are illegal. Drinking in your home was not offense, but drinking with friends or holding a banquet was illegal. And it is necessary to know that the prohibition only restrict the businesses that manufactured, distributed and sold it, it not limit the holding and drinking.

If there’s a will there’s a way and many people found a will and a way to get alcohol during Prohibition. Many citizens found creative loopholes to still enjoy their liquors even during prohibition. During the first few months even the first year of prohibition, the alcohol that the citizens still had left was not illegal to drink or have, but when they began to run out they had to get crafty if they wanted to keep drinking. Certain types of liquor could still be acquired through a doctor’s medical prescription. “Labels boldly stated that the bottles contents were strictly for medicinal purposes and that other uses were strictly illegal.”(Scott, Robert.) So naturally, people found this as a loophole and exploited it. The amount of “patients” in America that needed this prescription before prohibition nearly doubled after the fact. If it were not for this one loophole,out of many, all of the distilleries remaining for this purpose (which were mainly the only ones left), would have closed and further crippled the already crippled liquor industry, probably to the point of no return. “Over a million gallons a year of “prescription” booze were consumed freely every year.” (Scott,

The Prohibition era in the United States is most notably remembered for its inability to "sober up" the nation. According to Mark Thornton, a historian from Cato Institute, prohibition had some initial success but ultimately led to an increase in government spending in an attempt to curve the alcohol consumption in the U.S. even though the government was not obtaining tax dollars from alcohol. Also, those who could not obtain alcohol then turned to drugs such as opium and cocaine which would potentially deal much more harm to you than alcohol could. This source mentions some of the daunting problems with prohibition in the United States. The purpose of this source was to provide a broad overview of the effects of prohibition in the United States. The origin of this source was from a member of Cato Institute in which it was written as a secondary source. The value of this source was the ability to gain a broad understanding of the effects of prohibition. A limiting factor of this source would be that it was not written during the time period of prohibition and lacks primary information from those who experienced it