Prohibition In The 1920s Essay

The 1920s were a successful time for the US. Lots of new inventions and ideas were growing the economy. But all of that was going to change. In 1920, under all of the economic growth in the US, there was also a growth in drinking. Thus, America was voted dry. After 14 years, Prohibition was repealed. Americans changed their minds on Prohibition because it led to an increase in crime, lost money, and it was poorly enforced. A major reason why Americans changed their minds on Prohibition is because of the increase of crime. The book Drug War Facts, 6th Edition, 2008, shows a graph that shows a major increase of homicides during the time of prohibition. (US Census and FBI Uniform Crime Reports 3). Many people thought banning alcohol would lead

Even though alcohol-related murders were going down, most of the crime was associated with illegal alcohol trade. A massive surge of violence and crime caused Americans to dislike Prohibition. A second reason why Americans changed their minds on Prohibition is the government lost money. The book New Crusade says that “if the liquor sold by bootleggers was legally sold, regulated, and taxed, the income would pay the interest on the entire local and national debt and leave more than $200,000,00.” (Gordon 6). This was very bad because the people selling all of the alcohol would earn lots of money. If however, there were taxes put in place for the alcohol, the tax money would build up and the US would be able to use that money. The money could be used to pay off debt or to save it to help people in the great depression. The government losing money is one of the reasons Americans disliked Prohibition. Finally, Americans changed their minds on Prohibition because it was poorly enforced. An example of a failure to enforce the Volstead Act was when a group of smugglers “still operated successfully for months in a house adjacent to a police station. ” (Haskin