LEGAL PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN THE US (Essay Sample)

Legal Prohibition of Alcohol Consumption in the US Name: Course Title: Institution: Date: The history of laws undertaken over alcoholic drinks in the US becomes determined by the social and economic factors that prevail in the country. The formulation of the laws concerning alcoholic drinks in the US can mainly become embodied in four major occurrences that brought significant change to the enactment of alcoholic laws in the US. These three major happenings in the American society include Whiskey Rebellion, Temperance Movement, Eighteenth Amendment and the Repeal Prohibition. The Whiskey Rebellion occurred in 1794 where a faction of farmers in Western Pennsylvania rose up in arms to oppose the proposed federal regulations that sought to impose excise duties on the distilled spirits of the United States (Smith, 2013). The government gave out the reason for imposing the excise duties as an approach to meeting the soaring national debt. The federal regulations would become implemented based on the capacity of the individual distillers in the US. In this era, Whiskey got regarded as a high-value spirit given that the locals would use it for a myriad of domestic functions including cooking and social occasions (Smith, 2013). The rising rebellion on the taxes imposed forced President George Washington, to deploy troops for the purpose of quelling the heightened resistance from the American farmers and locals. It was the Whiskey Rebellion that gave rise to the inclusion of Treason into the American Jurisprudence. The treason charge got included after two individuals got found to be guilty of treason in the rebellion. The Temperance Movement, on the other hand, became spearheaded by the religious leaders in the early Nineteenth Century who sought to encourage abstinence from the drinking of alcohol in the American Society (Smith, 2013). The religious leaders crusaded that the partaking of alcohol was a sin against God and that the individuals who drank alcohol reduced their faith unto the religion. The majority of the activists promoting the temperance movement argued that alcohol was responsible for the many family breakups and the overall disharmony and disunity in the society during those periods. The temperance movement accomplished the condition of prohibition in around 12 states of the US; however, after 1868, the majority of the states abandoned the prohibition. The temperance movement, consequently, managed to instill some regulations concerning the uptake of alcohol amongst the American society. The other major historical aspect of the alcohol laws in the US was the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1919 (Behr, 1996). The Eighteenth Amendment stipulated that the sale, manufacture, importation and exportation of the alcoholic liquor within the US became prohibited by the constitution. The ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment became enforced by the US Congress, who could ensure that all the States abide by the regulation. The prohibition achieved through the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment became effective in the reduction of alcohol consumption within the US (Behr, 1996). Many reports stated that the uptake of alcohol and alcoholic substances in the US had decreased substantially leading to the moral uprightness of the society. Despite the passing of the prohibition law, the demand for alcohol amongst some of the Americans did not end, as such, the majority of the people decided to break the laws and find their way into the possession of some illicit alcohol that got smuggled or manufactured secretly within the US. As time went on, the majority of the people complained about the fact that the police interfered with personal privacy in their efforts to uncover the sale of illicit alcohol within the major States of the US (Behr, 1996). There were also reports that the law enforcement agents would collude with the manufacturers of illicit alcohol by sharing the profits accrued and allowing them to conduct business in the US. As such, the government was losing huge amounts of revenue through tax evasions that ensued from the illegal manufacturing and smuggling of alcohol in the US.[Andrew F. Smith, Drinking history: fifteen turning points in the making of American beverages (2013).] [Edward Behr, Prohibition: thirteen years that changed America (1996).] There were also growing concerns about the fact that prohibition had undermined the liberties of all the Americans by enforcing oppressive regulations that denied the rightful Americans to enjoy their hard-fought freedom. In the 1930's, the majority of the leaders had a mutual thought of the inclusion of the alcohol industry that could provide good returns so as to ameliorate the depressed economy of the US in this era. The alcoholic industry was also viewed to become a proper source of jobs for the majority of the unemployed Americans in this period. These factors gave rise to the increased campaigns by the people on the repeal of the prohibition against alcohol in the US. In 1933, the majority of the States supported the Twenty-First Amendment that pushed for the repeal of the prohibition of alcohol in the US. The ratification process of the Twenty-First Amendment became completed on December 5, 1933, during when its adoption became accepted in the US. The repeal of the prohibition, however, became subject to the fact that all the States would educate their people on the need to have restraint upon the excess consumption of alcohol so as to reduce the effects of alcohol abuse in the nation. In the post-prohibition period, the majority of the States in the US passed regulations, which stipulated that alcohol should not become sold or consumed by the people less than 21 years of age. The effectiveness of this regulation is, consequently, questionable given the current rise in the consumption of alcohol among the US minors (Jacobs, 1989). In 2001, the national highways traffic safety administration (NHTSA) estimated that 41 percent of the fatal highway crashes in the US was as a result of alcohol consumption amongst the drivers. The situation provides the state of the US alcohol consumption in the post-prohibition era given the present laws and regulations enacted to control the intake of alcohol. The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in the US is 21 years. The age threshold became enacted as per the Twenty-First Amendment to become adopted at a national level in the US. The adoption of the MLDA in the US became construed on the increased road fatalities caused by the increased consumption of alcohol amongst the minors (Jacobs, 1989). Studies demonstrated that road fatalities caused by alcohol abuse were the leading cause of deaths amongst the youths aged between 15 years and 24 years. The MLDA of the US has, however, received applause and critique from the majority of researchers that find it unique given that the majority of the countries in the world have their MLDA pegged for 18 years. The effect of the high MLDA in the US on alcoholic drinks is that the majority of the youths would engage in partaking alcohol secretly and privately to hide any publicity. The private intake of alcohol, however, leads to a situation where the youths would abuse the substance because of the increased restrictions (Griggs, 2015). There have been numerous pros and cons formulated regarding the imposition of the 21 years MLDA in the US. Firstly, the proponents of the US MLDA argue that the provision of alcohol to youths below the age of 21 years would result in related medical problems to the youths at an early age. The medical rationality becomes found upon the fact that alcohol intake in youths less than 21 years would result in reduced brain development, memory loss, and poor decision-making amongst the American youths (Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2013). Secondly, the proponents of the US MLDA also use the proposition that early drinking amongst the youths would increase the level of traffic fatalities resulting from drunk driving amongst the youths. The NHTSA is one of the proponents of the MLDA in the US because of increased highway crashes (Cochran, 1994). Thirdly, the people favoring the current US MLDA argue that the provision of alcohol to youths less than 21 years would allow young people to attend unsafe environments that include nightclubs and bars. The exposure to these environments gets viewed to become a source of moral decadence among the US youths. Fourthly, proponents of the stipulated US MLDA propose that the right to drink must become put at a higher age based on the dangers created by alcohol consumption.[James B. Jacobs, Drunk driving: an American dilemma (1989).] [Brandon Griggs, Should the U.S. lower its drinking age? CNN (2015), http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/16/us/legal-drinking-age/ (last visited Feb 29, 2016).] [Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Lower drinking ages can have an impact on later drinking patterns. ScienceDaily (2013), /releases/2013/01/130122162232.htm (last visited Mar 2, 2016).] [Robert F Cochran, 'Good Whiskey,' Drunk Driving, and Innocent Bystanders: The Responsibility of Manufacturers of Alcohol and Other Dangerous Hedonic Products for Bystander Injury. South Carolina Law Review, 45 (1994).] These proponents emphasize that just like the US President's age gets limited to 35 years or above, there should be a higher minimum age for the right to drink alcohol in the country. Lastly, the supporters of the US MLDA also point out that higher minimum drinking ages promote the reduced consumption of alcohol in the country given that people start to drink at a higher age when they are mature and have restraint o the consumption of drugs. The cons of the US MLDA are also quite many because of the increased dissatisfaction with the high age required for alcohol consumption in the country. Firstly, the ...