The Role Of Prohibition In The 1920's

For my paper I chose to examine the policy of prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s and 1930’s and how it relates to current prohibitionist practices around the present day “War on Drugs”. There are significant parallels between the “Noble Experiment” of alcohol prohibition and modern day drug prohibition. Just as alcohol prohibition empowered organized crime and gave rise to a violent culture of mafia families and gangsters, today drug prohibition empowers ruthless international criminal cartels and “banksters”. Alcohol prohibition resulted in extensive economic decline, enormous losses of tax revenue, and continuously escalating enforcement costs, these same consequences are echoed on a much larger scale in present day drug prohibition. Alcohol
The Puritan values brought by these early settlers would continue to have a strong impact on American social policy for centuries to come. The first laws outlawing distillation were enacted in several states in the late 18th century during the time of the Revolutionary War. While the movement continued to grow both in the United States and in Europe throughout the 18th and early 19th century, the temperance movement as a major political force wouldn’t emerge until the mid to late 19th century. Ultimately the temperance movement is associated with the progressive area of the late 19th and early 20th century, the growth of the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, and the establishment of the Anti-Saloon League, which would eventually gain enough political influence to be able to successfully lobby congress into passing the 18th amendment to the constitution in 1919 (Cherrington,
Prior to the temperance movement in the early 19th century alcohol consumption in the United States reached peak levels at nearly 7 gallons per person annually. As a result of the temperance movement. Consumption dropped by more than two-thirds to around 2 gallons per person per year at the time of the Civil War. During the era of prohibition that number was cut in half in half to around 1 gallon per person. Since the repeal of prohibition the annual rate of alcohol use in the United States has remained between 2 and 3 gallons per person (Fahey, Tyrrell, & Blocker, 2003). During the early years of prohibition arrests for drunkenness and alcohol related deaths and hospital admissions declined significantly. Alcohol related health and arrest statistics rose again in the latter years of prohibition, but never achieved pre-prohibition levels (Blocker, 2006). The culture of speakeasies also helped to transform the working-class male dominated saloon culture allowing women to enter and giving rise to modern night club culture (McGirr,