The Economic Implications Of The War On Drugs

32 Pages 7913 Words

t to stop the drinking, came from the middle and poor classes because these were the people most affected by the problem. The Anti-Saloon League had an effect on a great many people. By 1917, twenty-five states were dry. This meant that there was no legal use of alcohol in those twenty-five states. On December 18th, 1917, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed by a majority vote in the House of Representatives, but it would not go into effect as law unless three fourths of the states ratified it within seven years. The drinkers were happy because they thought that the 18th Amendment would never be ratified.
However, within one year and eight days, thirty six states - the three quarters necessary - voted for the 18th Amendment outlawing the manufacture, sale, transportation, import and export of January 17th, 1920, at exactly midnight, was when Prohibition went into effect. One minute after the law passed, $100,000 worth of alcohol was stolen from a government facility (Thornton). This was the beginning of a new and violent crime wave in America. Four other cases of alcohol-related robberies alone were reported that night. The increase in crime was just one of the many problems created by Prohibition that was overlooked by the proponents of the new law. Gangs and the Mafia took over the streets resulting in bloody feuds. They made massive amounts of money importing alcohol to the public. These organized crime elements had a lot of police paid off to look the other way while they went about their business. Smuggling liquor became a quick way to make money. Often, the liquor was homemade and very impure. Moonshine and other homemade alcohol resulted in 4,154 deaths in 1925 alone (Krout).
By the mid 1920’s, around forty million dollars worth of liquor had been illegally imported into the United States and the undermanned police force was powerless to stop it. At this time, around ten percent of th...