Prohibition in the United States

====Start of national prohibition (January 1920)====
[[File:19190117 Prohibition - Eighteenth Amendment - The New York Times.jpg|thumb|After the 36th state adopted the amendment on January 16, 1919, the U.S. Secretary of State had to issue a formal proclamation declaring its ratification.<ref name=NYTimes_19190117/> Implementing and enforcement bills had to be presented to Congress and state legislatures, to be enacted before the amendment's effective date one year later.<ref name=NYTimes_19190117>{{cite news |title=Nation Voted Dry, 38 States Adopt the Amendment / Prohibition Map of the United States |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-jan-17-1919-p-1/ |work=The New York Times |date=January 17, 1919 |pages=1, 4 |access-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-date=April 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411042415/https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-jan-17-1919-p-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:1919 Budweiser ad for alcohol free beer.png|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Budweiser]] ad from 1919, announcing their reformulation of Budweiser as required under the Act, ready for sale by 1920]]
Prohibition began on January 17, 1920, when the Volstead Act went into effect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xviii|title=Common Interpretation: The Eighteenth Amendment|last=George|first=Robert|website=constitutioncenter.org|access-date=January 9, 2018|archive-date=January 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119022347/https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xviii|url-status=live}}</ref> A total of 1,520 Federal Prohibition agents (police) were tasked with enforcement.

Supporters of the Amendment soon became confident that it would not be repealed. One of its creators, Senator [[Morris Sheppard]], joked that "there is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a humming-bird to fly to the planet Mars with the [[Washington Monument]] tied to its tail."<ref>{{cite journal | author=David E. Kyvig | title =Women Against Prohibition | journal =American Quarterly | volume =28 | issue =4 | pages =465–482 | date=Autumn 1976 | doi=10.2307/2712541| jstor =2712541 }}</ref>

At the same time, songs emerged decrying the act. After [[Edward VIII|Edward, Prince of Wales]], returned to the United Kingdom following his tour of Canada in 1919, he recounted to his father, King [[George V]], a ditty he had heard at a border town:
{{Blockquote|
<poem>Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry,
Went across the border to get a drink of rye.
When the rye was opened, the Yanks began to sing,
"God bless America, but God save the King!"<ref>{{Cite book|author1=Arthur Bousfield  |author2=Garry Toffoli  |name-list-style=amp | title=Royal Observations| publisher=Dundurn Press Ltd.| year=1991| location=Toronto| page=[https://archive.org/details/royalobservation0000bous/page/41 41]| url=https://archive.org/details/royalobservation0000bous|url-access=registration | isbn=978-1-55002-076-2| access-date=March 7, 2010}}</ref></poem>}}

Prohibition became highly controversial among medical professionals because alcohol was widely prescribed by the era's physicians for therapeutic purposes. Congress held hearings on the medicinal value of beer in 1921. Subsequently, physicians across the country lobbied for the repeal of Prohibition as it applied to medicinal liquors.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Jacob M. Appel | title =Physicians Are Not Bootleggers: The Short, Peculiar Life of the Medicinal Alcohol Movement | journal =The Bulletin of the History of Medicine | date=Summer 2008 }}</ref> From 1921 to 1930, doctors earned about $40 million for whiskey prescriptions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jurkiewicz|first1=Carole|title=Social and Economic Control of Alcohol The 21st Amendment in the 21st Century|date=2008|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton|isbn=978-1-4200-5463-7|page=5}}</ref>

[[File:Prescriptions for Medicinal Spirits - 1922.jpg|thumb|left|Prescription for medicinal alcohol during prohibition]]

While the manufacture, importation, sale, and transport of alcohol was illegal in the United States, Section 29 of the Volstead Act allowed wine and cider to be made from fruit at home, but not beer. Up to 200 [[Gallon|gallons]] of wine and [[cider]] per year could be made, and some [[vineyard]]s grew grapes for home use. The Act did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol. Many people stockpiled wines and liquors for their personal use in the latter part of 1919 before sales of alcoholic beverages became illegal in January 1920.

Since alcohol was legal in neighboring countries, distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or smuggled into the United States illegally. The [[Detroit River]], which forms part of the U.S. border with Canada, was notoriously difficult to control, especially [[rum-running in Windsor]], Canada. When the U.S. government complained to the British that American law was being undermined by officials in [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]], [[Bahamas]], the head of the [[Colonial Office|British Colonial Office]] refused to intervene.<ref>{{cite video | title =Prohibition, Part II: A Nation of Scofflaws | publisher =PBS | url =https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ | access-date =September 8, 2017 | archive-date =May 4, 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120504033223/http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ | url-status =live }}, a [[documentary film]] series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. See video excerpt: {{cite video | title =Rum Row | medium =video | publisher =PBS | url =http://video.pbs.org/video/2086033109 | access-date =February 15, 2012 | archive-date =March 30, 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120330024644/http://video.pbs.org/video/2086033109 | url-status =live }}</ref> [[Winston Churchill]] believed that Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://drinkboston.com/2010/04/25/probing-prohibition/|title=Probing Prohibition|author=Scott N. Howe|date=April 25, 2010|work=DrinkBoston|access-date=February 15, 2012|archive-date=October 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010073750/http://drinkboston.com/2010/04/25/probing-prohibition/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Three federal agencies were assigned the task of enforcing the Volstead Act: the [[U.S. Coast Guard]] Office of Law Enforcement,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/agency/3947-united-states-coast-guard-office-of-law-enforcement-us-government#ixzz1eaFKZRuK |title=United States Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement |publisher=Odmp.org |access-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-date=June 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605051558/http://www.odmp.org/agency/3947-united-states-coast-guard-office-of-law-enforcement-us-government#ixzz1eaFKZRuK |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Eleven U.S. Coast Guard men were killed between 1925 and 1927.</ref> the [[U.S. Treasury]]'s IRS Bureau of Prohibition,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/agency/5854-united-states-department-of-the-treasury-internal-revenue-service-prohibition-unit-us-government |title=United States Department of the Treasury – Internal Revenue Service – Prohibition Unit, U.S. Government, Fallen Officers |publisher=Odmp.org |access-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-date=May 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527135758/http://www.odmp.org/agency/5854-united-states-department-of-the-treasury-internal-revenue-service-prohibition-unit-us-government |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Fifty-six agents were killed between 1920 and 1927.</ref> and the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] Bureau of Prohibition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/agency/5856-united-states-department-of-justice-bureau-of-prohibition-us-government |title=United States Department of Justice – Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Government, Fallen Officers |publisher=Odmp.org |access-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-date=September 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927170344/http://www.odmp.org/agency/5856-united-states-department-of-justice-bureau-of-prohibition-us-government |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Thirty-four agents were killed between 1930 and 1934.</ref>