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As the title says, what if the Eighteenth Amendment had never been repealed and were still in full force today? Do you think there would have been total anarchy by our time or do you think people would get used to it?
Also, a bit off-topic but another question related I am curious about. The Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) was so hated that in only 13 years we made another amendment (the 21st) for the specific purpose of repealing the 18th one, yet look at weed, much like Alcohol during Prohibition there are all kinds of hate against the laws against it and many people happy to go underground and steal/kill and have gangs selling it just like what happened when Alcohol was banned yet why was Alcohol finally allowed to be legalized again yet weed isn't? Especially considering Alcohol is far more destructive than weed could ever hope to be?
As the title says, what if the Eighteenth Amendment had never been repealed and were still in full force today? Do you think there would have been total anarchy by our time or do you think people would get used to it?
Also, a bit off-topic but another question related I am curious about. The Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) was so hated that in only 13 years we made another amendment (the 21st) for the specific purpose of repealing the 18th one, yet look at weed, much like Alcohol during Prohibition there are all kinds of hate against the laws against it and many people happy to go underground and steal/kill and have gangs selling it just like what happened when Alcohol was banned yet why was Alcohol finally allowed to be legalized again yet weed isn't? Especially considering Alcohol is far more destructive than weed could ever hope to be?
People across the country would be ignoring it, lessening the respect for the law and the government. Corruption would be endemic and criminals would have yet another income stream.
As far as weed, many states have de-criminalized it in recent years. It is not hard to imaging that at some point in the future, it will be legal in every state.
As the title says, what if the Eighteenth Amendment had never been repealed and were still in full force today? Do you think there would have been total anarchy by our time or do you think people would get used to it?
Also, a bit off-topic but another question related I am curious about. The Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) was so hated that in only 13 years we made another amendment (the 21st) for the specific purpose of repealing the 18th one, yet look at weed, much like Alcohol during Prohibition there are all kinds of hate against the laws against it and many people happy to go underground and steal/kill and have gangs selling it just like what happened when Alcohol was banned yet why was Alcohol finally allowed to be legalized again yet weed isn't? Especially considering Alcohol is far more destructive than weed could ever hope to be?
Prohibition was well intended since many people's lives where ruined through alcohol abuse. I for one feel suprised just how much people missed drinking alcohol. I do not drink so would have got along just fine without it. Other drugs have been criminalized that were once legal and people did not seem to miss them as much as alcohol. I reallly think there is a deeply ingrained belief that alcohol is something deserved and entitled too.
When proposed it had huge support. Groups as diverse as the Ku Klux Klan, NAACP, labor unions and the NAM all supported it. Had to be a good thing, right?
There was much glorified during the days of Prohibition, "The American Gangsters", became idolized, The underground network was growing and would have continued to grow, had this not been repealed. It's kind like the Rave parties that took off with an explosion of the Estacy and such drugs. many of these turned into a " pill exchange party" and people popularized it, until the young group felt they were not living if they were not a part of it.
The same with the "Speak Easy", people took it to be an upscale exclusive things, of back in the woods, "shanty shack hang out" which ultimately attracted even more drinkers. Bootlegging was not only wide spread but it was full saturated across many rural areas.
It was almost like a situation of repeal the law, because you can't stop the activity, along with the focus and interest in "taxation gains".
In some areas there is still the fights going on in "Dry Counties", Recently, Arkansas had an item on the ballot. I've seen local municipalities fight and challenge the location and plans of "Thrifty" liquor. Some people don't want it in their community.
It's well known the ravages of Alcohol upon individuals, families and communities. In this city, they don't allow the sale on hard liquor on Sundays.
I think people would still be drinking if it had not been repealed, and maybe it may have even resulted to stronger and more deadly things being sold in the underground markets, because there would be no regulatory management of how its produced and what is allowable to be in it and what proof is standard.
There was much glorified during the days of Prohibition, "The American Gangsters", became idolized, The underground network was growing and would have continued to grow, had this not been repealed. It's kind like the Rave parties that took off with an explosion of the Estacy and such drugs. many of these turned into a " pill exchange party" and people popularized it, until the young group felt they were not living if they were not a part of it.
The same with the "Speak Easy", people took it to be an upscale exclusive things, of back in the woods, "shanty shack hang out" which ultimately attracted even more drinkers. Bootlegging was not only wide spread but it was full saturated across many rural areas.
It was almost like a situation of repeal the law, because you can't stop the activity, along with the focus and interest in "taxation gains".
In some areas there is still the fights going on in "Dry Counties", Recently, Arkansas had an item on the ballot. I've seen local municipalities fight and challenge the location and plans of "Thrifty" liquor. Some people don't want it in their community.
It's well known the ravages of Alcohol upon individuals, families and communities. In this city, they don't allow the sale on hard liquor on Sundays.
I think people would still be drinking if it had not been repealed, and maybe it may have even resulted to stronger and more deadly things being sold in the underground markets, because there would be no regulatory management of how its produced and what is allowable to be in it and what proof is standard.
Occasionally, I hear some poor misguided person (not you) state that its shame our country repealed Prohibition. When I hear that I just shake my head. Those who would say such a thing are truly ignorant of history.
Alcohol certainly has resulted in many social ills. Lives are ended because of alcohol abuse and alcoholism renders some virtually dysfunctional.
However, the major point is that its simply impossible to prevent the drinking of alcohol and even the people who enacted Prohibition should have been able to see that it was a hopeless law. Wine and beer can be made in any home fairly easily. Its just a question of having the right materials and knowing some very basic chemistry.
Alcoholic beverages are so ancient that no one has any clue how long people have been consuming them. Love em or hate em, you can't get away from the fact that they are so ingrained in human beings that they are part of human culture. There are hundreds of words and phrases in our vocabulary that are there because of drinking and alcohol. The idea that this could somehow be swept away with a law was beyond ridiculous. During Prohibition it was not hard to find alcohol. Anyone who really wanted to drink could do so.
The alcoholic beverage industry created hundreds if not thousands of jobs. It was taxed by the federal government and for many years was a critical source of revenue.
Enacting Prohibition is what opened the door to organized crime in this country. The Mafia would never have become the huge criminal organization that it became without the money that Prohibition generated for it. We would never even have heard of gangsters like Al Capone. This harm simply cannot be understated. Prohibition ultimately ended, but by that time, organized criminals learned they could take advantage of other substances such as heroin and narcotics. Prohibition and organized crime were responsible for untold levels of bribery and corruption among the police and public officials. Public officials who take bribes become nothing more than organized criminals themselves.
Making alcohol illegal caused all sorts problems. Sometimes, to make a buck, bootleggers would make moonshine with poisonous alcohol. There were any number of accounts of people who were killed or blinded consuming liquor. In fact, to discourage drinking our own government--in an act of insanity--deliberately poisoned some alcohol to try and prevent its use to make liquor.
Alcohol should be regulated and controlled. However, the notion that you can stop people from drinking by passing a law was simply absurd.
During prohibition, people could get a license allowing them to make liquor for their own private use. My grandfather had one and made wine. I suspect more people would have done so if Prohibition continued. It would have kept drinking mostly confined to the home, which would greatly reduce drunk driving and other problems associated with social drinking.
As the title says, what if the Eighteenth Amendment had never been repealed and were still in full force today? Do you think there would have been total anarchy by our time or do you think people would get used to it?
Also, a bit off-topic but another question related I am curious about. The Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) was so hated that in only 13 years we made another amendment (the 21st) for the specific purpose of repealing the 18th one,
Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of boozing by the American people, and the policy wasn't nearly as hated as you apparently believe.
In 1928, Hoover won a rather convincing landslide running on a "dry" platform when Prohibition was well underway. Even in the mid 30's, after repeal, 40% of the public still supported it.
More harm has come to individuals out of the minds of "family values" White Protestants (and that includes their often meddling females), than most any criminal activity.
Prohibition was a direct response in part to WASPs and other white Americans seeing what they called a break down of "American" family values brought upon by alcohol consumption. More to the point it was the drinking habits of the vast hordes of immigrants such as the Irish and Germans that bothered these people.
The Germans in particular loved their beer. Besides building and running breweries (often so successfully they made fortunes), Germans and Eastern Europeans saw no vice in drinking. That is they knocked back a few after work, wives served beer with meals (and even drank along with their husbands), they brought kegs of beer along for picnics, etc... Worst of all these persons drank on *SUNDAY*!
Idea was that once booze was banned peace and harmony would float around America once again. Husbands would stop staying out at pubs surrounded by loose women and when they did come home stop beating up their wives and children. And so the theory went; none of it was true.
Persons wanted their booze and would turn to anything or one to get it. For each year of Prohibition the numbers of persons dying from being poisoned by drinking bootleg booze increased. These numbers would shoot up especially in urban areas like New York City around the holiday season (Christmas through New Years) as persons got their party on.
Morgues would be overflowing with bodies and MEs wrote impassioned letters to anyone who listened that Prohibition was a failure. Congress and the WH responded by raising the content of denatured alcohol (the substance most often used to make bootleg booze). The result was the death rates jumped!
It was out of these deaths, the rise of gangster violence and the various crime syndicates along with the collateral damage (deaths due to poisonings, and or otherwise persons trying to get booze or money for it that many finally realized the 18th amendment was causing more harm than good. In contrary to everything that was promised at it's passage the United States became a less safe place and far more dangerous in many places.
Echoes of the 18th amendment follow us today in that it was the last time the USC was altered to address a social issue. Despite all the noise abortion and later same sex marriage never generated the sort of response to change the USC to outlaw.
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