3 Lessons from Prohibition, Which Started Today (Jan 16th) in 1919

Reason Magazine ^

[JP1201]

On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment became law when five state legislatures (North Carolina, Utah, Nebraska, Missouri, and Wyoming) passed it. In the end, 46 of 48 states passed it, with only Connecticut and Rhode Island voting it down. The text of the amendment set into motion what became known as Prohibition:

Here we are, almost 100 years later and marijuana legalization is proceeding apace, despite the efforts of the current attorney general. What lessons might we draw from Prohibition, which was repealed in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment? They are many, for sure, but here are three quick takeaways worth pondering:

[BDParrish]

Done at a time when our government lords actually thought that they had to have a constitutional authority in order to outlaw something. We sure got over that didn’t we?

[pepsionice]

The reasoning here...which started truly back in the 1800s was that if you just outlawed it, it would all go away. The only thing that went away was the saloon-like atmosphere that existed in most states.

Most folks will tell you that the speak-easy episode lead to one single big change....in that women started to drink and hang out, and that cocktails became a preferred drink of many folks in these social occasions.

Beyond that, prohibition didn’t fix much of anything except convince folks that a income tax program was necessary to replace the alcohol tax, and no one wanted to get rid of income taxes after prohibition ended.

[JP1201]

It also gave rise to the second biggest criminal enterprise this country has ever seen.

The war on drugs created the biggest...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If it is illegal, and people want it, it will be supplied by someone.

[sparklite2]

We sure did. What took a constitutional amendment then is a stroke of a pen today. We’re like prisoners standing in our cells shouting out through the bars, “I’m free! I’m free!”