Prohibition: Why Did America Change Its Mind?

Prohibition: Why Did America Change Its Mind ?
The alcohol industry is one of the largest to contribute to the U.S economy. Its reported that the alcohol industry generates about 475 billion dollars annually alone. If prohibition was never repealed, the U.S could have excess amounts of money. Prohibition, which was voted on December 17, 1917, stopped the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol. In the intention to stop violence caused my intoxication, prohibition only promoted more violence and crime throughout the country. Bootleggers (People who sold illegal alcoholic beverages) were selling alcohol to the very own men who voted to ban alcohol. Corruption didn’t occur just inside the congress
Bootleggers sold illegal alcohol which gave them leverage to promote crime. Document A demonstrates how gangsters, racketeers, bootleggers and dope sellers, which are all criminals, are all holding hands and parading with Uncle Sam. With this intention, the document implies that prohibition was mostly in favor of criminals because it created a bridge for them to spread violence. Racketeers forced people into extortion, Bootleggers kept selling illegal alcohol, dope sellers dealt with the sale of drugs, and gangsters caused murder. The most compelling evidence, Document B proves how there was a significant number of homicides. In 1900, the homicide rate per 100,00 Americans showed that it was about 1. After World War I and shortly after prohibition was passed, the number of homicide grew exponentially. In 1933, the Homicide rate per 100,00 Americans was about 10. Ultimately, document b implies that during the start of prohibition, the homicide rates grew and dropped after prohibition. For this reason, prohibition was a poor decision because it favored criminals and created large amounts of
To demonstrate, bootleggers were consistently importing and exporting illegal alcohol to and from the United States. Furthermore, many of the police force recruits never enforced the law. “Smuggling from Mexico and Canada has been successful on a large scale because it is an utter impossibility to patrol the thousands of miles or border” (Doc. C). The evidence signifies that because of the vast border, there simply isn’t enough people or resources to enforce the 18th amendment, bootleggers have it easy to smuggle alcohol to large vessels to export out into other countries. Criminals typically found ways around the law by waiting outside the 3-mile limit where they are on international waters. Congressmen who have voted for prohibition are violating their own law. There are significant amounts of bootleggers selling alcohol to people of Congress. Police officers never enforce the law on the very own congress members. “The very men who made prohibition law are violating it” (Doc. D). the irony the document demonstrates is that the people that made the law into effect are violating it. The 18th amendment was repealed because of lack of enforcement that no one thought was