Prohibition

18 Pages 4418 Words

not a whit to Americans when they focused on certain imaginary problems. It was because of a few drawbacks, some real, some perceived, that the American people decided to change their minds.
Unenforceability
The first and perhaps foremost drawback of Prohibition that affected public opinion was that it was extremely unenforceable. In 1925, the average American over fourteen years of age drank 32.2 gallons of alcoholic beverages per year.5 Most of this drinking was done in saloons, restaurants and cafes, but after Prohibition began, vast numbers of people began brewing and distilling alcohol in their own homes, making the consumption of alcohol much harder to detect. In addition, many crime syndicates ran huge alcohol-producing organizations that supplied massive quantities of alcohol to bootleggers all over the country. During Prohibition, thousands of speakeasies, or illegal saloons, popped up in every city, and nearly every town. The newly-founded Prohibition Bureau, part of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, was faced with a huge task.
Whe...