Prohibition

As under a spell, the people had suffered this act to be brought to its fatal conclusion, but with the first touch of cold reality the charm was undone, and the law appeared in its true aspect. Brought about by the Eighteenth Amendment and enforced through the Volstead Act, prohibition lasted for over a decade. Despite a growing lack of public support for both Prohibition and restraint itself, the ban on alcohol continued throughout the …

…from the temptation to drink by barring its sale. The original idea was that Americans as a whole were unhealthy, there was too much crime and corruption, and that people were being burdened by excess taxes that poorhouses and prisons were creating. What happened? The cheap alcohol being illegally produced killed more Americans, crime and corruption went up, taxes were raised to fund the law enforcement needed to enforce prohibition, and the prisons became overcrowded.