Prohibition Passing and Illegalization of Alcohol in the U.S. (Essay Sample)

Prohibition Passing and Illegalization of Alcohol in the U.S.
Prohibition is the eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution which disqualified the manufacturing and selling of alcoholic liquors-ushered in a particular period in American history. Consequently, in the United States, this act was ratified on January 16, 1919, and it went into effect on January 17, 1920, following the passage of the Volstead Act. Besides, prohibition was difficult to be enforced, although new legislation was available. The increase of criminal prohibition, the proliferation of speakeasies, and the accompanying rise in gang violence and other delinquencies led to winning support for prohibition nearing the end of the 1920s. Therefore, in early 1933, congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the constitution that would repeal the 18th. Hence, ratification of the 21st Amendment took place on December 5, 1993, leading to the termination of prohibition. There were two claims about whether the prohibition was a failure or a success.
For one, some people have argued that prohibition was a failure. For instance, America's anti-alcohol experiment reduced drinking and drinking-related deaths, and so it may have reduced crime and violence overall. In 193, ratification of the 21st Amendment ended the federal government's fourteen-year quest to prohibit the manufacturing, distribution, and selling of alcoholic drinks (Caulkins, 2019). As such, prohibition had become progressively disliked after 1925 and even mostly with the starting of the great depression after 1929. Consequently, two myths were widely accepted, of which one was that prohibition had failed utterly to minimize the drinking levels. The other was that through encouragement, bootlegging, and unauthorized alcohol trading, prohibition had provoked the coming up with organized offenders led by notorious bosses like Al Capone. With the availability of these gangs, detractors were charged, were responsible for a rise in deadly violence, such as the massacre day in saint valentine that happened in 1929.
Indeed, prohibition lost its public support in its later years. However, it should not be equated with failure in the first place. Prohibition had attained substantial gains in public health. Nevertheless, the claim that it was accountable for coming up with the business of violence oversimplifies the story of the American illegal felonious. In understanding why the same succeeded, it is essential to realize that before the countries' prohibition, drinking levels had been climbing steadily for years. From 1870 to 1910, the yearly consumption per capita rose from 1.7 gallons to a peak of 2.6 gallons. Consequently, the increase resulted from the expansion of the brewing business and the related outpouring in the number of saloons catering to working-class and immigrating customers (Caulkins, 2019). The broad-based abstinence reform movement asserted that drinking heights were responsible for a host of inconsiderate significances like medical illnesses, premature deaths, and others. Hence, prohibition was of paramount importance to the public health challenge in the United States of America.