Prohibition

=__**Prohibition**__=

toc Prohibition was a banning of alcohol in the 1920s. It started in January 16 1920. The 18th amendment put this act into effect. You weren't allowed to import, export, manufacturing, transporting, or selling alcohol. After the 18th amendment, the National Prohibition Act was put into effect. It's author was Arthur J. Volstead. This made anything with more than 0.5 percent of alcohol in, banned. The Prohibition Act was put into effect because people wanted to decrease crime that was committed with the consumption of alcohol. The Prohibition Act was ineffective because no one wanted to follow it and give up drinking alcohol.

__**The Early Parts**__
Prohibition was started by Congress because alcohol was starting violence and crimes. Congress thought that if we banned alcohol it would stop all the crime, but instead of that it just created more. People just started "speakeasies" which were underground clubs where they sold and manufactured alcohol. These "clubs" were in offices buildings or hidden basements. To get in you needed a membership card. Bootlegging was very popular in Prohibition. They fermented Vine- Glo, a type of grape juice, for 30 days and it turned into a type of wine. Congress' goal was to stop the production of alcohol but in prohibition it was very easy to obtain alcohol. Because of Prohibition Americans started to drink more and get drunk more often. The drop in alcohol deaths before Prohibition skyrocketed during Prohibition.

__**The Bad Things about Prohibition**__
In Prohibition there were many problems. It was during the Great Depression and alcohol did make a lot of money. Congress just tought that alcohol was causing crimes and violence. But that got even worse during Prohibition when addicts didnt get their alcohol. It raised the death toll, domestic violence counts, and crimes. It raised the crimes because more people were making alcohol illegal and making "speakeasies". The domestic violence raised because husbands would come back up all liquored up and beat wives. Prohibition didnt really help like it was supposed to it just hurt the dying economy even more.

__**Problems**__
Some of the problems that alcohol prohibition caused was that the death toll was higher than when it had been before the prohibition. Another was that people started manufacturing and selling alcohol illegally in speakeasies and other place. Even well-respected politicians bought alcohol from these "speakeasies". President Harding kept the White House stocked with bootlegged alcohol during the Prohibition. There were even problems on the water. People fought over the 3 mile limit, if you were farther than that on the water you could drink freely. Doctors also gave out whiskey to some patients as a prescription. The labels on the whiskey specifically said that it was only for medicinal purposes and nothing else. But that didn't stop all the doctors from filling out the prescriptions. Pharmacies were filled with people who claimed to have a "problem" and needed whiskey to solve them. Prohibition presented people with the opportunity to bootleg. The people who bootlegged made a lot of money during Prohibition because people started demanding alcohol more.

__**Death Toll**__
The death toll in Prohibition was higher than it was before Prohibition. This scared many people. Between 1920 and 1925 the death toll was from between 1,064 to 4,154. People thought that with having Prohibition, cirrhosis and other alcohol related deaths would be prevented. It didnt really work that way. Alcohol made people react in a violent way and it increased the rate of domestic violence in homes.

__**Crimes**__
Before Prohibtion alcohol related crimes were through the roof. Even during Prohibition crimes were bad. When they banned alcohol people just made it at home and it had more potency when they made it at home because they made it out of household chemicals. People would go on alcohol fueled rants and rob banks, beat wives (or husbands), and just go out and harass people. Prohibition did increase the crime rate in the US. Gangsters and criminals would find ways to make or buy alcohol. Sometimes the police could be bought out to be a gangster or a criminal. Even the government would throw parties with alcoholic beverages.

__**How Prohibition Ended**__
Prohibition ended because it wasnt any good and no one ever really gave it much thought, even the government. FDR tried to make more money during the depression from alcohol taxes and tariffs. The government also worried about the crime and how men spent too much time in speakeasies. The more people talked about a repeal the more people liked it. They wanted to repeal Prohibition because they thought it would be more peaceful when Prohibition was gone. And they were right.

__**References**__
The End of Prohibition __**http://library.thinkquest.org/28892/prohibition/end/the_end.htm [|Prohibition of Alcohol in the 1920s] [|Prohibtion]**__