1920s Prohibition and the Rise in Crime essays

1920s Prohibition and the Rise in Crime essays In 1933 the Prohibition on Alcohol was repealed, and the consumption of alcohol was finally made legal, soon after this legalization, Congress passed a law making laws against drugs in the United States. It has been determined by many scholars that ending alcohol prohibition was more harmful in the United States than as it was beneficial. Shortly after this time, a major drug problem began to arise, and the United States has been faced with a drug was ever since. If not for the legalizing of alcohol it is quite possible that our drug epidemic in the U.S. may have been avoided. In 1920, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment making alcohol consumption illegal. "The Eighteenth or Prohibition Amendment passed both houses of Congress in December 1917 and was ratified by three-fourths of the 48 state legislatures 13 months later. From 1920 until 1933, the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol was prohibited in the United States./ As with tobacco, the opiates, and cocaine, the legislation failed to create a general climate of abstention. And where there was a populace of willing consumers, supply was still able to keep pace with demand." It was very obvious that during the thirteen years that this act was in effect that there was still a major amount of alcohol being supplied in the country. Many organized crime bosses were in power and dispensing of alcohol and producing all over the country, not to mention local people making it themselves. "Alcohol remained available during Prohibition. People still got drunk, still became alcoholics, still s uffered delirium tremens. Drunken drivers remained a frequent menace on the highways... The courts, jails, hospitals, and mental hospitals were still filled with drunks..." The amendment only had one positive repercussion during its time and that was it did cause fewer people in the United States to consume alcohol. It was very obvious to Congress that the law was ineffective, an...