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The Rise of Prohibition and its Consequences

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The Rise of Prohibition and its Consequences

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During the progressive era, alcoholism was connected to violence and led to poverty as well as other immoralities in society. This led to the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, banning the manufacturing and sale of alcohol. Under the terms of this new law, Prohibition was imposed. However, this ban made Americans covet alcohol even more. Speakeasies opened across many U.S. cities, supplied with foreign commercial liquor from bootleggers. Crime gangs, seeing the profitability of the business, began to fight over control of its operations. The most famous of the crime gang leaders was Al Capone, who seized all of Chicago‘s 10,000 speakeasies with his private army of 700 criminals. People even made their own liquor through moonshine and supplied it to speakeasies themselves. The Great Depression made things even worse as it made Americans want to drink more often due to the economic crisis. With so many crimes happening, it was clear Prohibition was not being enforced effectively.

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Prohibition vs. Today's Alcoholism: Problems

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Prohibition vs. Today's Alcoholism: Problems

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Back in the 1920s, problems with alcohol were much different compared to the problems today. At first, it was how alcohol was causing immorality, insanity, and violence in society. Prohibition solved this problem but caused even more chaos due to illegal activity. The whole country suddenly had a need for forbidden booze. There were crime gangs trying to take control of bootlegging operations to get rich. Speakeasies and bootleggers sold illegal alcohol and the police barely enforced the Eighteenth Amendment or the Volstead Act. The problems were then about alcohol being a part of American culture and the people refusing to follow the law. Alcoholism today is usually about underage drinking and binge drinking. The problems now are about the consequences of drinking too much alcohol or drinking alcohol while your brain is still developing. Drunk driving, which wasn’t a major issue in the past, is now prevalent. The invention of fast moving vehicles combined with busy roads is a recipe for disaster. People are now more susceptible to death from alcohol-related accidents because of high speed travel and the ease of alcohol availability. People have their own cellars at home and access to bars or groceries where alcohol is readily sold.

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Underage drinking and binge drinking are now the main issues stemming from alcoholism. Underage drinking is responsible for about 4,000 deaths and more than 240,000 years of potential life lost among people under age 21 each year. It also cost the U.S. $249 billion in 2010, mostly due to loss of workplace productivity, healthcare and law enforcement expenses relating to excessive alcohol use, and motor vehicle crashes due to drunk driving. Underage drinkers might experience, school, social, legal, physical, and memory problems. They might also do unwanted sexual activity, have a disruption in their normal growth, and suffer from alcohol poisoning. Other effects may include, physical and sexual violence, increased risk of suicide and homicide, alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes and other injuries, misuse of other substances, changes in brain development that may have lifelong effects, and develop an alcohol use disorder later in life. Binge drinking is just as horrible as underage drinking. It is defined as consuming 4 or 5 drinks in one sitting. It has been made very clear that binge drinking is common throughout the U.S. One in six U.S. adults binge drink, with 25% doing so at least weekly. One fourth of those also consume at least eight drinks a binge. Due to the long term effects of alcohol abuse, binge drinking is considered to be a major public health issue.

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Wayne Wheeler, the supporter of Prohibition who created the Eighteenth Amendment

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There were many reformers trying to get alcohol banned before Prohibition. One of the major anti-alcohol movements was the Temperance Movement. They felt that banning alcohol would “put a stop to society‘s evils.“ This perspective was in line with the W.C.T.U. and Mary Hunt, who felt Prohibition would promote morality and better health. There was also the radical reformer Carrie Nation, who took a hatchet to saloons while she preached the evils of alcohol. After these efforts, Wayne Wheeler and his Anti-Saloon League conceived the Eighteenth Amendment and had it passed and ratified by Congress. Chairman Andrew Volstead of the House Judiciary Committee also supported the amendment and engineered the passage of the National Prohibition Act, usually known as the Volstead Act. Both of these new laws banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol. However, neither the act nor the amendment were able to fix alcoholism in the United States. In fact, the situation became worse. Organized crime was now widespread across many cities. Bands of criminals fought for control to becoming major sellers of illegal booze. The gang lord Al Capone had seized control of Chicago‘s bootlegging operations and was continuously bribing the authorities to get out of trouble. To deal with this, Eliot Ness was hired as a special agent for the U.S. Department of Justice so he could head the Prohibition bureau in Chicago and take down Capone. The people Ness would hire were so dedicated and unbribable, that they would be called “the Untouchables.“ Their raiding of breweries and speakeasies took down Capone‘s network and soon, the crime lord was arrested for tax evasion in 1932.

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Prohibition vs. Today's Alcoholism: Reformers

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Prohibition vs. Today's Alcoholism: Reformers

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Back in the 1920s, the reformers were focused on destroying alcohol altogether. They preached that alcohol was evil and nefariously destroying society. They didn’t exactly explain why alcohol was causing people to turn into “monsters” and mostly threatened/forced their solutions onto the people. When prohibition didn’t work, the reformers simply cracked down on the populous. On the other hand, the reformers today have legalized alcohol but have set a rule regarding its consumption. People are supposed to show their identification cards to prove that they are of legal drinking age, which is 21 years old. There is also a law that deals about the limitations of alcohol use when driving. The agencies that deal with this problem at present have also done extensive research and information is now available about why excessive amounts of alcohol is bad for everyone.

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After Prohibition was repealed, many American citizens turned up to bars to finally get a taste of "legal alcohol."

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Prohibition, despite its many supporters, also had unintended consequences that no one saw coming. One of these problems was bootleggers bringing in foreign commercial liquor to American speakeasies by boat. To get out of trouble, they used foreign registered ship and always hung outside of the three mile-zone from the U.S. coast beyond which the U.S. government lacked jurisdiction. They also put their loads onto high-powered speedboats, meant to outrace U.S. Coast Guard cutters. To solve this, the Coast Guard began halting and searching ships at a greater distances from the coast, as well as using faster motor launches. Another problem was in Chicago, Illinois, where Al Capone had established himself as a powerhouse. To combat his power, Eliot Ness would be hired to head the Prohibition bureau in Chicago. His team, known as the "Untouchables," were able to arrest Capone for income tax evasion in 1932. These events would finally culminate in President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Cullen-Harrison Act permitting low-alcohol beverages. It was not long after until Roosevelt also signed, passed, and ratified the Twenty-First Amendment, repealing Prohibition at a federal level, and allowed alcohol to return to society.

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A major group that is against alcoholism is the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The CDC is the United States’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization whose goal is to protect the public’s health. It does this by putting science into action to help children stay healthy so they can grow and learn and helping families, businesses, and communities fight disease and stay strong. Another major organization is AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). This is an international fellowship of men and women who have had a drinking problem. Other notable organizations are the Community and U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces who work to improve the health of communities nationwide by issuing evidence-based recommendations and findings on public health interventions designed to improve health and safety.

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Multiple different infographics on Alcoholism

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Prohibition vs. Today's Alcoholism: Solutions

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Prohibition vs. Today's Alcoholism: Solutions

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The solutions that the reformers came up with in the 1920s was very much different from the solutions to alcoholism today. Rather than showing an informative explanation that alcohol was detrimental for your brain and your body, they just banned alcohol altogether through the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act. Usually when authorities take away something without a reason, people are more likely to protest or resort to illegal acts. That resulted in Prohibition failing terribly and causing more problems for the U.S. Nowadays, it isn’t about making alcohol illegal but rather regulating its use. Alcohol is now allowed, but information about its abuse and the consequences under the law are made available to everyone. There’s now a well-defined guideline that people can follow and clearly understand.

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The C.D.C. has created many web pages on anything related to excessive drinking to educate people on why alcohol is bad for your brain and how to prevent further usage. The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends many ways to reduce alcoholism such as increasing alcohol taxes, having commercial host (“dram shop”) liability laws, regulating the number and concentration of alcohol outlets, and enforcing laws prohibiting alcohol sales to minors. They also want to restrict access to alcohol by implementing limits on the days and hours of alcohol retail sales, consistently enforcing laws against underage drinking and alcohol-impaired driving, and maintaining government controls on alcohol sales (avoiding privatization). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening and counseling for alcohol misuse in primary care settings. Meanwhile, the Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship offers the alcoholic a way to develop a satisfying life without alcohol. Their members share their experience with anyone seeking help with a drinking problem and give person-to-person service or “sponsorship” to the alcoholic coming to the fellowship.