Prohibition: The Ignoble Experiment Essay, Research Paper

Prohibition: The Ignoble Experiment

The 18th Amendment , considered to be one of the biggest follies of the

nation, was brought about with the intent to sincerely help the U.S., but more

harm came from it than good. Prohibition, also known as the 18th Amendment ,

was ratified on January 29th, 1920 and was repealed on December 5th, 1933 with

the ratification of the 21st Amendment which nullified prohibition.

The 18th Amendment stated that it was illegal to manufacture, transport,

and sell alcoholic beverages in the United States. “The national prohibition of

alcohol was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems,

reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and

hygiene in America” (Thornton 70). This was a very good idea, but America went

about it the wrong way. We, instead, created even more problems such as

organized crime, increased alcohol consumption, over crowded prison systems, and

the uprise of the Mafia. Not only was this a step in the wrong direction, it

was an action that increased the problems that America was already facing.

People believed that prohibition would fail and that it was a violation

of a person’s privacy while other people thought that prohibition would do

nothing but improve America. People who were against prohibition were called

wets and people for it were called drys. Wets mainly consisted of democrats who

refused to stop drinking and who were usually older men or immigrants who drank

all their life. The drys were usually republican Protestants who believed

alcohol was evil and that prohibition was the answer to societies problems.

Well, the drys were wrong because many problems surfaced as a result of

prohibition.

One problem was the increase of alcohol consumption. Alcohol

consumption did go down at the beginning of prohibition, but subsequently went

back up. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume and crime burgeoned and

became ?organized”. The courts and prison systems became over crowded resulting

in a full blown war on alcohol which costed the government millions of dollars.

Political officials began to want a piece of the action and became corrupt.

The prohibition of alcohol also resulted in the removal of significant

tax revenues and the increase of government spending. It also led many drinkers

to switch to other drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, opium, patent medicines,

and other dangerous substances they would have been unlikely to use otherwise. ?

Speakeasies” or illegal saloons, and ?bootleggers” (dealers of alcohol) surfaced

all over the U.S. This created crime and corruption everywhere. This darkside

of alcohol gave it a glamourous and forbidden feel to it which tempted non-

drinkers to drink so they could ?experience the forbiddance of alcohol”. This

drastically increased the alcohol consumption rate higher than it was before

prohibition was ratified.

“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the

problems it was intended to solve and supplanted other ways of addressing them”

(Thornton 73). The only beneficiaries of prohibition were bootleggers,

crimebosses, and the forces of the big government. When prohibition was

nullified in 1933, crime dramatically went down, including organized crime, and

corruption. Jobs were created, and new voluntary efforts, such as alcoholics

anonymous, which was created in 1934, succeeded in helping alcoholics.

Prohibition was also used in several other countries such as Finland in 1919

with minimal results. Society needs to open their eyes and not let history

repeat itself. Prohibition is obviously not the way.