How Did Prohibition Affect Mississippi

The Impact of Prohibition on the State of Mississippi Prohibition is an often untold story in American History. It was overshadowed by the Great Depression and it lasted only 13 years. Prohibition was revoked on a national level in 1933, however Mississippi held onto Prohibition until 1966. Prohibition caused many of Mississippi’s current problems such as a low quality education and higher teen drinking rates. When Prohibition first came into effect, organized crime was on a decline. The days of robbing banks were over and most business was being taken over by legitimate enterprise. However, Prohibition gave organized crime a new industry, illegal alcohol. Organized crime worked in smuggling booze from Mexico, Cuba, and Canada. Most often,
These range from both extremes, but most effects tend to be negative. Such as a rise in opium use and higher death rates for anyone who drank alcohol. The government poisoned industrial alcohol without telling the public leading to many deaths throughout the nation. The illegalization of alcohol led to people trying to make alcohol, but instead making poison. Prohibition also unwittingly gave rise to organized crime due to the vast amounts of money to be made bootlegging. Prohibition also influenced drinking after it was repealed. Prohibition encouraged drinking hard liquor as seen by the popularity of hard liquor post prohibition. Police were also affected by Prohibition. Police death rates spiked from a low of 32 deaths per year to a peak of 249 in 1930. The death rate was still only 75 in 1943 due to higher rates of organized crime. Prohibition still occurred in Mississippi and has had a resurgence due to the emergence of microbreweries in the 1980s. It has also been shown that preventative measures such as teen prevention and higher taxes do much more to curtail drinking than extreme measures such as Prohibition(Pearson 1-2). Everyone was affected by Prohibition whether or not you lived through it. It has left a mark on our traditions and habits and has shown us that extreme measures aren't always the right measures as shown by the effect of preventative measures enacted
The U.S. government put deadly chemicals in alcohol sold to industries which in turn caused many consumers to die or experience other adverse effects. The government measures mostly consisted of brute force which didn’t solve very much. It just forced small producers out of the market and gave way to the rise of organized crime. These measures proved ineffective because most local law enforcement was not in support of this legislation and often allowed smugglers to sell their product. Recently, with the resurgence in microbreweries, different methods are being tested. New prevention methods have proved that stopping people from becoming addicted to booze is more effective than halting their access to it(Pearson 2).Since 1966, Agents of Mississippi’s Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC agents, have still proven these methods effective having successfully prosecuted in excess of 40,000 violations and destroying approximately 3,000 whiskey stills(NABCA 1).These methods combined with higher taxes on booze have had a larger impact than the extreme methods of prohibition(Pearson 2). These issues are still current ones as in 2016 alone, ABC agents have destroyed 13 moonshine operations(NABCA 2). Although it may seem like a distant problem, Prohibition caused many lasting effects that we still feel today. Hard Liquor is still popular and have distrusted federal agents since. In the end, it has been proven that