[rhombus]

An excellent question... I'd like to hear an answer or at very least a theory.

[spqrzilla9]

Because Prohibition was adopted before the Supreme Court had interpreted the Constitution's commerce clause ( Art I, sec. 8) to allow Congress to regulate goods that had not crossed state lines.

[doc30]

I'm no expert on this, but didn't Prohibition outlaw drugs as well as alcohol? WHen Prohibition was rescinded, I think only alcohol was made lagal again. Other substances were still illegal. Can anyone else confirm this?

[WindMinstrel]

Prohibition started way back when, before congress gave in to FDR's twisted interpretation of the commerce clause. Had it occured later they would have used the commerce clause to justify it, and we wouldn't have had an ammendment.

For more on the commerce clause buffoonery see KIDS, GUNS, AND THE COMMERCE CLAUSE: IS THE COURT READY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT?

[AdA$tra]

It may have something to do with the fact that the Constitution was once a document that actually meant something and carried some weight. The feds know what they can get away with these days. We started down the slippery slope just after WW II, and it gets a bit worse every year.

[inquest]

Because... they actually respected the Constitution back then?

[Lexington Green]

I believe it's in the BECAUSE WE SAY SO Clause....

[Lazamataz]

Because we had a Constitution back then.

[NC_Libertarian]

FMI

[umgud]

I this day and time, the constitution doesn't matter if the gov't wants to do social engineering.

Can't ban guns? Make them very costly and hard to get, sue the manufacturers, work toward banning all but gov't approved firearms, throw up every roadblock you can.

Don't want smokers? Raise taxes, sue the tobacco makers, vilify and belittle smokers.........

Don't want SUV's?.............

[Semper Paratus]

MaryJane is legal under certain conditions in Alaska.
Where does the federal law kick in?

[brityank]

Because back then we still had a valid Constitution.

[Desdemona]

Just a guess...

Because the teetotalers were getting nowhere at the local level?

[11th Commandment]

You can add the 19th ammendment to the list- Women's sufferage. Many States and Counties already gave women the right to vote before the ammendment was passed.

I also have questions about the need for the 24th. Preventing a poll tax could have been done via federal law.

Also the 26th, lower the voting age to 18. Not because federal law could have allowed this, it justed turned out to be a stupid idea.

[weikel]

After FDR the government decided it didn't need to amend the constitution every time it wanted to make a stupid socialistic expansion of the government. With the recent revealation that even Reagan raised taxes I must conclude we haven't had a conservative President since Coolidge.

[fporretto]

This question is not as easy as one might suppose. The Harrison Narcotics Control Act, which criminalized most possession and sale of opiates and cocaine, was passed in 1918 -- the same year as the Eighteenth (Prohibition) Amendment.

I've slapped the histories around until I'm tired, and I can't find anywhere a rationale for the Constitutionality of the Harrison Act, without an equivalent of the Eighteenth Amendment.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[Conservative til I die]

This almost sounds like you're setting up the drug warriors here. But I like this approach. The burden is on them to show why one needed a Constitutional amendment and not the other.

[RGSpincich]

I'll wager that the proponents of prohibition didn't want to defend a law banning alcohol on it's constitutionality. Amending the Constitution eliminated that possibility.

[Publius6961]

I have been wondering lately how come the US Government needed a constitutional amendment to outlaw alcohol, but did not need one to outlaw marijuana and other drugs.

Harder to rationalize is tobacco.
Ostensibly, always a legal substance.

Attempting to tax it out of existience is the functional equivalent to banning it.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Duuude! Who cares about liquor? Now, don't Bogart that j-bar and pass it on!