How Does Prohibition Affect Our Society

Prohibition in the United States was a time of great change. Some of the change may have been for good and some for bad but either way almost every aspect of our society was affected by prohibition during those 13 years. In 1919 the National Prohibition Act or otherwise known as the Volstead Act put a constitutional ban on the manufacturing, selling, and transportation of alcohol. However, the Volstead Act did not ban people from being able to consume or be in possession of alcohol. People were thirsty and would go about smuggling alcohol in some very interesting and creative ways just to satisfy that thirst. Smuggling, manufacturing, and selling alcohol became big business in the United States and many individuals and groups of people went to great lengths to profit from it. The goal of prohibition was to turn drunkards into productive members of society and reduce the overall corruption of society during that period of time. Two man groups that became active in the fight for prohibition and the “crusade against moral evil” were the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League. These two groups lobbied for years to finally have the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act put

“Prohibition also was commonly known to have no negative effect on organized crime it only opened up a new window for them to profit from. It was just a new illegal market to develop and monopolize”. And that is exaclty what they did. From the beginning, Al Capone had to learn from Johnny Torrio who was a mafia boss in Chicago during the early 1920s. As Capone grew up he learned from Torrio who served as somewhat of a mentor and eventually inherited his mob business when Torrio wanted out. Capone was in charge during the late 1920s and continued his illegal business of bootlegging. “Al capone began coordinating the importation of alcohol from many states and even Canada. He also ran hundreds of breweries and