Prohibition in the United States

==Effects==
[[File:Rehoboth WCTU Fountain (Sussex County, Delaware).jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union Fountain (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware)|temperance fountain]] erected by the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] during the Prohibition era in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware]]

===Alcohol consumption===
[[File:Prohibition-era-prescription-for-whiskey.jpg|thumb|Prohibition-era prescription for whiskey]]

According to a 2010 review of the academic research on Prohibition, "On balance, Prohibition probably reduced per capita alcohol use and alcohol-related harm, but these benefits eroded over time as an organized black market developed and public support for [national prohibition] declined."<ref name=":1" /> One study reviewing city-level drunkenness arrests concluded that prohibition had an immediate effect, but no long-term effect.<ref name=":4">{{cite journal|last1=Dills|first1=Angela K.|last2=Jacobson|first2=Mireille|last3=Miron|first3=Jeffrey A.|date=February 2005|title=The effect of alcohol prohibition on alcohol consumption: evidence from drunkenness arrests|journal=Economics Letters|volume=86|issue=2|pages=279–284|citeseerx=10.1.1.147.7000|doi=10.1016/j.econlet.2004.07.017|quote=These results suggest that Prohibition had a substantial short-term effect but roughly a zero long-term effect on drunkenness arrests. Perhaps most strikingly, the implied behavior of alcohol consumption is similar to that implied by cirrhosis. Dills and Miron (2004) find that Prohibition reduced cirrhosis by roughly 10–20%...The fact that different proxies tell the same story, however, is at least suggestive of a limited effect of national Prohibition on alcohol consumption.}}</ref> And, yet another study examining "mortality, mental health and crime statistics" found that alcohol consumption fell, at first, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level; but, over the next several years, increased to about 60–70 percent of its pre-prohibition level.<ref name="Miron">{{cite journal|last1=Miron|first1=Jeffrey|last2=Zwiebel|first2=Jeffrey|year=1991|title=Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition|journal=[[American Economic Review]]|series=Papers and Proceedings|volume=81|issue=2|pages=242–247|jstor=2006862}}</ref> The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages, however, it did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol in the United States, which would allow legal loopholes for consumers possessing alcohol.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Prohibition: Unintended Consequences {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences/|access-date=2020-10-18|website=www.pbs.org|archive-date=April 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425062236/https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Health ===
Research indicates that rates of cirrhosis of the liver declined significantly during Prohibition and increased after Prohibition's repeal.<ref name="Moore1989" /><ref name="MacCounReuter2001" /> According to the historian Jack S. Blocker Jr., "death rates from cirrhosis and alcoholism, alcoholic psychosis hospital admissions, and drunkenness arrests all declined steeply during the latter years of the 1910s, when both the cultural and the legal climate were increasingly inhospitable to drink, and in the early years after National Prohibition went into effect."<ref name="Blocker2006" /> Studies examining the rates of [[cirrhosis]] deaths as a proxy for alcohol consumption estimated a decrease in consumption of 10–20%.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dills |first1=A.K. |last2=Miron |first2=J.A. |year=2004 |title=Alcohol prohibition and cirrhosis |journal=American Law and Economics Review |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=285–318 |doi=10.1093/aler/ahh003 |s2cid=71511089 |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w9681.pdf |access-date=August 8, 2019 |archive-date=June 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602145256/http://www.nber.org/papers/w9681.pdf |url-status=live }}<!--http://www.nber.org/papers/w9681.pdf--></ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Moore |editor1-first=M.H. |editor2-last=Gerstein |editor2-first=D.R. |title=Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition |year=1981 |url=https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor |url-access=registration |publisher=National Academy Press |location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-0-585-11982-3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=G. |last2=Anderson |first2=Peter |last3=Babor |first3=Thomas F. |last4=Casswell |first4=Sally |last5=Ferrence |first5=Roberta |last6=Giesbrecht |first6=Norman |last7=Godfrey |first7=Christine |last8=Holder |first8=Harold D. |last9=Lemmens |first9=Paul H.M.M. |year=1994 |title=Alcohol Policy and the Public Good |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-262561-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/alcoholpolicypub00edwa }}</ref> [[National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism]] studies show clear epidemiological evidence that "overall cirrhosis mortality rates declined precipitously with the introduction of Prohibition," despite widespread flouting of the law.<ref name="INational Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism">{{cite journal |title=The Epidemiology of Alcoholic Liver Disease |first1=Robert E. |last1=Mann |first2=Reginald G. |last2=Smart |first3=Richard |last3=Govoni |journal=Alcohol Research & Health |year=2003 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=209–219 |publisher=[[National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism]] |pmid=15535449 |pmc=6668879 |url=http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-3/209-219.htm |access-date=July 13, 2012 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180417/http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-3/209-219.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Crime===
It is difficult to draw conclusions about Prohibition's impact on crime at the national level, as there were no uniform national statistics gathered about crime prior to 1930.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Hall|first=Wayne|date=2010|title=What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920–1933?|journal=Addiction|language=en|volume=105|issue=7|pages=1164–1173|doi=10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02926.x|pmid=20331549|issn=1360-0443}}</ref> It has been argued that [[organized crime]] received a major boost from Prohibition. For example, one study found that organized crime in Chicago tripled during Prohibition.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Chris M.|date=2020-08-24|title=Exogenous Shocks, the Criminal Elite, and Increasing Gender Inequality in Chicago Organized Crime|journal=American Sociological Review|volume=85|issue=5|language=en|pages=895–923|doi=10.1177/0003122420948510|s2cid=222003022|issn=0003-1224|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[American Mafia|Mafia]] groups and other criminal organizations and [[gang]]s had mostly limited their activities to [[prostitution]], [[Illegal gambling|gambling]], and theft until 1920, when organized [[Rum-running|"rum-running" or bootlegging]] emerged in response to Prohibition.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} A profitable, often violent, [[black market]] for alcohol flourished.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Unintended Consequences|url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences|access-date=2021-11-18|website=Prohibition {{!}} Ken Burns {{!}} PBS|language=en|archive-date=October 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017200712/http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences/|url-status=live}}</ref> Prohibition provided a financial basis for organized crime to flourish.<ref>Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States. National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. January 7, 1931</ref> In one study of more than 30 major U.S. cities during the Prohibition years of 1920 and 1921, the number of crimes increased by 24%. Additionally, theft and burglaries increased by 9%, homicides by 13%, assaults and battery rose by 13%, drug addiction by 45%, and police department costs rose by 11.4%. This was largely the result of "black-market violence" and the diversion of law enforcement resources elsewhere. Despite the Prohibition movement's hope that outlawing alcohol would reduce crime, the reality was that the [[Volstead Act]] led to higher crime rates than were experienced prior to Prohibition and the establishment of a black market dominated by criminal organizations.<ref>{{cite book | author =Charles Hanson Towne | title =The Rise and Fall of Prohibition: The Human Side of What the Eighteenth Amendment Has Done to the United States | publisher =Macmillan | year =1923 | location =New York | pages =[https://archive.org/details/risefallofprohib00town/page/159 159]–162 | url =https://archive.org/details/risefallofprohib00town}}</ref>

A 2016 NBER paper showed that South Carolina counties that enacted and enforced prohibition had homicide rates increase by about 30 to 60 percent relative to counties that did not enforce prohibition.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Bodenhorn|first=Howard|date=December 2016 |title=Blind Tigers and Red-Tape Cocktails: Liquor Control and Homicide in Late-Nineteenth-Century South Carolina|journal=NBER Working Paper No. 22980 |doi=10.3386/w22980 |doi-access=free}}</ref> A 2009 study found an increase in homicides in Chicago during Prohibition.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Asbridge|first1=Mark|last2=Weerasinghe|first2=Swarna|date=2009|title=Homicide in Chicago from 1890 to 1930: prohibition and its impact on alcohol- and non-alcohol-related homicides|journal=Addiction|language=en|volume=104|issue=3|pages=355–364|doi=10.1111/j.1360-0443.2008.02466.x|pmid=19207343|issn=1360-0443}}</ref> However, some scholars have attributed the crime during the Prohibition era to increased [[urbanization]], rather than to the criminalization of alcohol use.<ref name="CookMachin2013">{{cite book|title=Lessons from the Economics of Crime: What Reduces Offending?|date= 2013|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|isbn=978-0-262-01961-3|page=56|language=en|quote=Proponents of legalization often draw on anecdotal evidence from the prohibition era to argue that the increase in crime during prohibition occurred directly because of the criminalization of alcohol. Owens (2011), however, offers evidence to the contrary—exploiting state-level variation in prohibition policy, she finds that violent crime trends were better explained by urbanization and immigration, rather than criminalization/decriminalization of alcohol.|first1=Philip J.|last1=Cook|first2=Stephen|last2=Machin|first3=Olivier|last3=Marie|first4=Giovanni|last4=Mastrobuoni}}</ref> In some cities, such as [[New York City]], crime rates decreased during the Prohibition era.<ref name="PinardPagani2000">{{cite book |last1=Pinard |first1=Georges-Franck |last2=Pagani |first2=Linda |title=Clinical Assessment of Dangerousness: Empirical Contributions |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JqdKV7t-89EC&pg=PA199 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |language=en |isbn=978-1-139-43325-9 |page=199 |quote=These declines in criminality extended from 1849 to 1951, however, so that it is doubtful that they should be attributed to Prohibition. Crime rates in New York City, too, decreased during the Prohibition period (Willback, 1938). |access-date=October 4, 2018 |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200737/https://books.google.com/books?id=JqdKV7t-89EC&pg=PA199 |url-status=live }}</ref> Crime rates overall declined from the period of 1849 to 1951, making crime during the Prohibition period less likely to be attributed to the criminalization of alcohol alone.<ref name="PinardPagani2000"/>{{why|date=June 2018}}<!-- Wouldn't that eliminate urbanisation and make a temporary spike during prohibition more likely to be the cause? -->

[[Mark H. Moore]] states that contrary to popular opinion, "violent crime did not increase dramatically during Prohibition" and that organized crime "existed before and after" Prohibition.<ref name="Moore1989" /> The historian Kenneth D. Rose corroborates historian John Burnham's assertion that during the 1920s "there is no firm evidence of this supposed upsurge in lawlessness" as "no statistics from this period dealing with crime are of any value whatsoever".<ref name="Rose1997">{{cite book |last1=Rose |first1=Kenneth D. |title=American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition |date=1997 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7466-3 |page=45 |language=en}}</ref> [[California State University, Chico]] historian Kenneth D. Rose writes:<ref name="Rose1997"/>
{{Blockquote|Opponents of prohibition were fond of claiming that the Great Experiment had created a gangster element that had unleashed a "crime wave" on a hapless America. The WONPR's Mrs. Coffin Van Rensselaer, for instance, insisted in 1932 that "the alarming crime wave, which had been piling up to unprecedented height" was a legacy of prohibition. But prohibition can hardly be held responsible for inventing crime, and while supplying illegal liquor proved to be lucrative, it was only an additional source of income to the more traditional criminal activities of gambling, loan sharking, racketeering, and prostitution. The notion of the prohibition-induced crime wave, despite its popularity during the 1920s, cannot be substantiated with any accuracy, because of the inadequacy of records kept by local police departments.|sign=|source=}}Along with other economic effects, the enactment and enforcement of Prohibition caused an increase in resource costs. During the 1920s the annual budget of the [[Bureau of Prohibition]] went from $4.4 million to $13.4 million. Additionally, the [[United States Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guard]] spent an average of $13 million annually on enforcement of prohibition laws.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bureau of Prohibition, Statistics Concerning Intoxicating Liquors|publisher=Government Printing Office|year=1930|location=Washington|page=2}}</ref> These numbers do not take into account the costs to local and state governments.

===Powers of the state===
According to Harvard University historian Lisa McGirr, Prohibition led to an expansion in the powers of the federal state, as well as helped shape the penal state.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State|last=McGirr|first=Lisa|publisher=W.W. Norton|year=2015}}</ref> According to academic Colin Agur, Prohibition specifically increased the usage of telephone wiretapping by federal agents for evidence collection.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Agur|first=Colin|date=2013|title=Negotiated Order: The Fourth Amendment, Telephone Surveillance, and Social Interactions, 1878–1968|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1492199073|journal=Information & Culture; Austin|volume=48|issue=4|pages=419–447|id={{ProQuest|1492199073}}|via=ProQuest|access-date=May 10, 2022|archive-date=November 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102220207/https://www.proquest.com/docview/1492199073|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Discrimination ===
According to Harvard University historian Lisa McGirr, Prohibition had a disproportionately adverse impact on African-Americans, immigrants and poor Whites, as law enforcement used alcohol prohibition against these communities.<ref name=":0" />

===Economy===
A 2021 study in the ''Journal of Economic History'' found that counties that adopted Prohibition early subsequently had greater population growth and an increase in farm real estate values.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Howard|first1=Greg|last2=Ornaghi|first2=Arianna|date=2021|title=Closing Time: The Local Equilibrium Effects of Prohibition|journal=Journal of Economic History|volume=81|issue=3|pages=792–830|doi=10.1017/S0022050721000346|issn=0022-0507|s2cid=237393443|url=https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/151179/1/WRAP-Closing-time-local-equilibrium-effects-prohibition-2021.pdf |language=en}}</ref>

According to [[Washington State University]], Prohibition had a negative impact on the American economy. Prohibition caused the loss of at least $226 million per annum in tax revenues on liquors alone; supporters of the prohibition expected an increase in the sales of non-alcoholic beverages to replace the money made from alcohol sales, but this did not happen. Furthermore, "Prohibition caused the shutdown of over 200 distilleries, a thousand breweries, and over 170,000 liquor stores". Finally, it is worth noting that "the amount of money used to enforce prohibition started at $6.3 million in 1921 and rose to $13.4 million in 1930, almost double the original amount".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Unintended Consequences of Prohibition: Negative Economic Impacts of Prohibition |url=http://digitalexhibits.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/prohibition-in-the-u-s/negative-economic-impacts-of-p |website=wsu.edu |publisher=Washington State University |access-date=27 April 2020 |archive-date=May 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517120157/http://digitalexhibits.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/prohibition-in-the-u-s/negative-economic-impacts-of-p |url-status=live }}</ref>
A 2015 study estimated that the [[repeal of Prohibition]] had a net social benefit of "$432 million per annum in 1934–1937, about 0.33% of gross domestic product. Total benefits of $3.25 billion consist primarily of increased consumer and producer surplus, tax revenues, and reduced criminal violence costs."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vitaliano|first=Donald F.|date=2015|title=Repeal of Prohibition: A Benefit-Cost Analysis|journal=Contemporary Economic Policy|language=en|volume=33|issue=1|pages=44–55|doi=10.1111/coep.12065|s2cid=152489725|issn=1465-7287}}</ref>

When 3.2 percent alcohol beer was legalized in 1933, it created 81,000 jobs within a three-month span.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021|title=Estimates of employment gains attributable to beer legalization in spring 1933|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498321000498|journal=Explorations in Economic History|language=en|doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101427|issn=0014-4983|last1=Poelmans|first1=Eline|last2=Taylor|first2=Jason E.|last3=Raisanen|first3=Samuel|last4=Holt|first4=Andrew C.|volume=84|page=101427|s2cid=240509048|access-date=September 22, 2021|archive-date=September 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922025639/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498321000498|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Other effects===
[[File:Raceland Louisiana Beer Drinkers Russell Lee.jpg|thumb|Men and women drinking beer at a bar in [[Raceland, Louisiana]], September 1938. Pre-Prohibition saloons were mostly male establishments; post-Prohibition bars catered to both males and females.]]

During the Prohibition era, rates of [[absenteeism]] decreased from 10% to 3%.<ref name="Behr2011">{{cite book |last1=Behr |first1=Edward |title=Prohibition: Thirteen Years that Changed America |date=2011 |publisher=[[Arcade Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-61145-009-5 |language=en}}</ref> In Michigan, the [[Ford Motor Company]] documented "a decrease in absenteeism from 2,620 in April 1918 to 1,628 in May 1918."<ref name="Lyons2018">{{cite web |last1=Lyons |first1=Mickey |title=Dry Times: Looking Back 100 Years After Prohibition |url=http://www.hourdetroit.com/Hour-Detroit/May-2018/Dry-Times-Looking-Back-100-Years-After-Prohibition/%27 |publisher=[[Hour Detroit]] |date=April 30, 2018 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200711/https://www.hourdetroit.com/community/dry-times-looking-back-100-years-after-prohibition/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

As [[Western saloon|saloons]] died out, public drinking lost much of its macho connotation, resulting in increased social acceptance of women drinking in the semi-public environment of the [[Speakeasy|speakeasies]]. This new norm established women as a notable new target demographic for alcohol marketeers, who sought to expand their clientele.<ref name="Blocker, Jr. 2006 233–243"/> Women thus found their way into the bootlegging business, with some discovering that they could make a living by selling alcohol with a minimal likelihood of suspicion by law enforcement.<ref>O'Donnell, Jack. "The Ladies of Rum Row". American Legion Weekly, (May 1924): 3</ref> Before prohibition, women who drank publicly in saloons or taverns, especially outside of urban centers like Chicago or New York, were seen as immoral or were likely to be prostitutes.<ref>Mar Murphy, "Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte Montana." ''American Quarterly'', Vol 46, No 2, p. 177, 1994</ref><!---added sentence really needs to be better integrated into paragraph. Wording needs tweaking-->

Heavy drinkers and alcoholics were among the most affected groups during Prohibition. Those who were determined to find liquor could still do so, but those who saw their drinking habits as destructive typically had difficulty in finding the help they sought. Self-help societies had withered away along with the alcohol industry. In 1935 a new self-help group called [[Alcoholics Anonymous|Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)]] was founded.<ref name="Blocker, Jr. 2006 233–243"/>

Prohibition also had an effect on the [[Music of the United States|music industry in the United States]], specifically with [[jazz]]. [[Speakeasy|Speakeasies]] became very popular, and the [[Great Depression|Great Depression's]] migratory effects led to the dispersal of jazz music, from [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] going north through [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] and to New York. This led to the development of different styles in different cities. Due to its popularity in speakeasies and the emergence of advanced recording technology, jazz's popularity skyrocketed. It was also at the forefront of the minimal integration efforts going on at the time, as it united mostly black musicians with mostly white audiences.<ref>{{cite book | author =Lewis A. Erenberg | title =Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture | publisher =The University of Chicago Press | year =1998 | location =Chicago }}</ref><!--page#?-->

====Alcohol production====
Making [[moonshine]] was an industry in the [[American South]] before and after Prohibition. In the 1950s [[muscle cars]] became popular and various roads became known as "Thunder Road" for their use by moonshiners. A popular song was created and the legendary drivers, cars, and routes were depicted on film in ''[[Thunder Road (1958 film)|Thunder Road]]''.<ref>[http://www.oldcarmemories.com/content/view/63/76/ Thunder Road – the First Muscle Car Movie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102191941/http://www.oldcarmemories.com/content/view/63/76/ |date=January 2, 2014 }} by Pete Dunton July 20, 2010 Old Car Memories</ref><ref>[http://jacksonville.com/news/premium/metro/2012-11-16/story/legend-moonshiners-thunder-road-lives-baker-county Legend of moonshiners' 'Thunder Road' lives on in Baker County] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601225436/http://jacksonville.com/news/premium/metro/2012-11-16/story/legend-moonshiners-thunder-road-lives-baker-county |date=June 1, 2015 }} November 16, 2012 Jacksonville Metro</ref><ref>[http://www.metropulse.com/news/2010/jun/30/driving-tennessees-white-lightnin-trail-it-real-th/ Driving Tennessee's "White Lightnin' Trail" – is it the Real Thunder Road?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103012534/http://www.metropulse.com/news/2010/jun/30/driving-tennessees-white-lightnin-trail-it-real-th/ |date=January 3, 2014 }}; Jack Neely retraces the infamous bootlegger's route as it becomes an official state tourist attraction by Jack Neely MetroPulse June 30, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/feb/13/appalachian-journal-the-end-of-thunder-road/ Appalachian Journal: The end of Thunder Road] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210074232/http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/feb/13/appalachian-journal-the-end-of-thunder-road/ |date=February 10, 2014 }}; Man known for whiskey cars, moonshine and rare auto parts is selling out by Fred Brown Knoxville News Sentinel February 13, 2007</ref>

As a result of Prohibition, the advancements of [[industrialization]] within the alcoholic beverage industry were essentially reversed. Large-scale alcohol producers were shut down, for the most part, and some individual citizens took it upon themselves to produce alcohol illegally, essentially reversing the efficiency of mass-producing and retailing alcoholic beverages. Closing the country's manufacturing plants and taverns also resulted in an economic downturn for the industry. While the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]] did not have this effect on the industry due to its failure to define an "intoxicating" beverage, the [[Volstead Act]]'s definition of 0.5% or more alcohol by volume shut down the brewers, who expected to continue to produce beer of moderate strength.<ref name="Blocker, Jr. 2006 233–243" />

In 1930 the Prohibition Commissioner estimated that in 1919, the year before the Volstead Act became law, the average drinking American spent $17 per year on alcoholic beverages. By 1930, because enforcement diminished the supply, spending had increased to $35 per year (there was no inflation in this period). The result was an illegal alcohol beverage industry that made an average of $3 billion per year in illegal untaxed income.<ref>{{cite journal|author=E. E. Free|date=May 1930|title=Where America Gets Its Booze: An Interview With Dr. James M. Doran|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OigDAAAAMBAJ&q=1930+plane+%22Popular&pg=PA19|journal=Popular Science Monthly|volume=116|issue=5|page=147|access-date=November 7, 2013|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200713/https://books.google.com/books?id=OigDAAAAMBAJ&q=1930+plane+%22Popular&pg=PA19|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Volstead Act specifically allowed individual farmers to make certain wines "on the [[legal fiction]] that it was a non-intoxicating fruit-juice for home consumption",<ref>{{Cite magazine | url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742105,00.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061214152014/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742105,00.html  | archive-date= December 14, 2006 |title=Prohibition: Wine Bricks |magazine=Time |date=August 17, 1931 |access-date=May 26, 2013}}</ref> and many did so. Enterprising grape farmers produced liquid and semi-solid grape concentrates, often called "wine bricks" or "wine blocks".<ref>{{cite news| title=Prohibition in Wine Country| publisher=[[Napa Valley Register]]| url=http://www.napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/real-napa/article_ed8bdf22-4a81-11df-bb7d-001cc4c002e0.html| date=April 18, 2010| author=Kelsey Burnham| access-date=April 18, 2010| archive-date=April 20, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420090247/http://www.napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/real-napa/article_ed8bdf22-4a81-11df-bb7d-001cc4c002e0.html| url-status=live}}</ref> This demand led [[California (wine)|California]] grape growers to increase their land under cultivation by about 700% during the first five years of Prohibition. The grape concentrate was sold with a "warning": "After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it will turn into wine".<ref name="AaronMusto1981" />

The Volstead Act allowed the sale of [[sacramental wine]] to priests and ministers and allowed [[rabbis]] to approve sales of [[kosher wine]] to individuals for [[Sabbath]] and holiday use at home. Among [[Jews]], four rabbinical groups were approved, which led to some competition for membership, since the supervision of sacramental licenses could be used to secure donations to support a religious institution. There were known abuses in this system, with impostors or unauthorized agents using loopholes to purchase wine.<ref name="Last Call"/><ref name=Sprecher>{{cite web|author=Hannah Sprecher|title="Let Them Drink and Forget Our Poverty": Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition|url=http://sites.americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf|publisher=American Jewish Archives|access-date=September 4, 2013|archive-date=November 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124120114/https://sites.americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Prohibition had a notable effect on the alcohol brewing industry in the United States. Wine historians note that Prohibition destroyed what was a fledgling wine industry in the United States. Productive, wine-quality grapevines were replaced by lower-quality vines that grew thicker-skinned grapes, which could be more easily transported. Much of the institutional knowledge was also lost as winemakers either emigrated to other wine-producing countries or left the business altogether.<ref>{{cite book | author =Karen MacNeil | title =The Wine Bible | pages =630–631 | author-link =Karen MacNeil }}</ref> Distilled spirits became more popular during Prohibition.<ref name="Lusk, Rufus S 1932"/> Because their alcohol content was higher than that of fermented wine and beer, spirits were often diluted with non-alcoholic drinks.<ref name="Lusk, Rufus S 1932"/>