Pros And Cons Of The 18th Amendment

Back In 1920, there is a kind of believe that revolves around the American society during that period - people see alcohol as a bad thing, meanwhile they also think that the consumption of alcohol is bad, as it will lead to other troubles such as the rise of criminal activities. People also believed that by drinking alcohol, it will endanger American’s health, and lower an individual’s productivity. Therefore, the government ended up decided to crackdown on alcohol, and thus, the 18th amendment is created. The 18th amendment will prohibit the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol in the United States. However, the 18th amendment did not work as it intended to be, it did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol, instead, it

Firstly, the majority of the American do not think of the consumption of alcohol as a bad thing, instead, they see it as an enjoyable thing to do, therefore, people start breaking the law by drinking alcohol. Also, the consumption of alcohol is legal if you have a prescription, thus, the doctor will prescribe patient who was alcoholic with four liters of alcohol every week so that they could be legally drunk, and as a result, the total sales for medical alcohol went up to 400% during the prohibition. Meanwhile, a portion of Americans even made their own alcohol instead of buying it, which they called it “moonshine”. Secondly, the existence of the 18th amendment led to the growth of crime rate in America, as it helped the secret societies, gangsters, and speakeasies became popular among the public, they became the main supply of alcohol in American which helps them made a tremendous amount of money. Even the formal American President - Warren G. Harding, whom initially voted against the banning of alcoholic beverages and later voted for the 18th amendment, he himself would drink and play poker in the white house. Lastly, America will face the great depression period in the 1930s, it is a period where millions of people in America were jobless. The government realized that more jobs could be created in the alcohol industry if it wasn’t for the 18th amendment, therefore, along with the trouble caused by the prohibition, it eventually led to the passage of the 21st amendment in 1933, which made alcohol legal again in the United States.

In general, once something is illegalized, a massive underground economy will then quickly developed. And this is what happened to the prohibition of alcohol back in the 1920s and the war on drugs which Nixon declared in the year of 1971, which is series of actions tending toward a prohibition of illegal drug trade in America. There are several similarities and difference