Prohibition in the United States

==Repeal==
{{Main|Repeal of Prohibition in the United States}}
[[File:After End of Prohibition New York Times 1933 3.jpg|thumb|Americans celebrated the end of Prohibition in 1933.]]
Naval Captain [[William H. Stayton]] was a prominent figure in the anti-prohibition fight, founding the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment in 1918. The AAPA was the largest of the nearly forty organizations that fought to end Prohibition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Repealing National Prohibition|last=Kyvig|first=David E.|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=1979|location=Chicago, IL|page=49}}</ref> Economic urgency played a large part in accelerating the advocacy for repeal.<ref>Lisa McGirr, ''The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State'' (2015) pp. 231–256.</ref> The number of conservatives who pushed for prohibition in the beginning decreased. Many farmers who fought for prohibition now fought for repeal because of the negative effects it had on the agriculture business.<ref name="Gitlin, Marty 2011">Gitlin, Marty. The Prohibition Era. Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing, 2011.</ref> Prior to the 1920 implementation of the Volstead Act, approximately 14% of federal, state, and local tax revenues were derived from alcohol commerce. When the Great Depression hit and tax revenues plunged, the governments needed this revenue stream.<ref>Davis, ''Jews And Booze: Becoming American In The Age Of Prohibition'', p. 191.</ref> Millions could be made by taxing beer. There was controversy on whether the repeal should be a state or nationwide decision.<ref name="Gitlin, Marty 2011"/> On March 22, 1933, President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] signed an amendment to the Volstead Act, known as the [[Cullen–Harrison Act]], allowing the manufacture and sale of 3.2% beer (3.2% alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume) and light wines. The Volstead Act previously defined an intoxicating beverage as one with greater than 0.5% alcohol.<ref name="nih2006"/> Upon signing the Cullen–Harrison Act, Roosevelt remarked: "I think this would be a good time for a beer."<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954983-6,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711191515/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954983-6,00.html  | archive-date=July 11, 2007 | magazine=Time | title=F.D.R.'s Disputed Legacy | date=February 1, 1982 | access-date=May 22, 2010 | first1=Otto | last1=Friedrich | first2=Hays | last2=Gorey}}</ref> According to a 2017 study in the journal ''[[Public Choice (journal)|Public Choice]]'', representatives from traditional beer-producing states, as well as Democratic politicians, were most in favor of the bill, but politicians from many Southern states were most strongly opposed to the legislation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Poelmans|first1=Eline|last2=Dove|first2=John A.|last3=Taylor|first3=Jason E.|date=December 11, 2017|title=The politics of beer: analysis of the congressional votes on the beer bill of 1933|journal=Public Choice|volume=174|issue=1–2|language=en|pages=81–106|doi=10.1007/s11127-017-0493-1|s2cid=158532853|issn=0048-5829|url=https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/603971}}</ref>

The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the [[Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]]. Despite the efforts of [[Heber J. Grant]], president of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]], the 21 [[Utah]] members of the constitutional convention voted unanimously on that day to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, making Utah the 36th state to do so, and putting the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment over the top in needed voting.<ref>{{cite web | author =W. Paul Reeve|author1-link=W. Paul Reeve | title =Prohibition Failed to Stop the Liquor Flow in Utah | work =Utah History to Go | url =http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/prohibitionfailedtostoptheliquorflowinutah.html | access-date =November 7, 2013 | archive-date =October 23, 2013 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20131023101952/http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/prohibitionfailedtostoptheliquorflowinutah.html  }} (First published in ''History Blazer'', February 1995)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/423840/UTAHS-1933-CONVENTION-SEALED-PROHIBITIONS-DOOM.html?pg=all|title=Utah's 1933 Convention Sealed Prohibition's Doom|website=[[Deseret News]]|date=June 20, 1995|access-date=May 25, 2017|archive-date=March 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327233944/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/423840/UTAHS-1933-CONVENTION-SEALED-PROHIBITIONS-DOOM.html?pg=all}}</ref>

In the late 1930s, after its repeal, two fifths of Americans wished to reinstate national Prohibition.<ref name="Blocker, Jr. 2006 233–243">{{cite journal| author=Jack S. Blocker Jr. |date=February 2006|title=Did Prohibition Really Work?|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=96|issue=2|pages=233–243|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409|pmc=1470475|pmid=16380559}}</ref>

===Post-repeal===
{{Further|Dry state|Dry county|List of dry communities by U.S. state}}
[[File:Alcohol control in the United States.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Map showing dry (red), wet (blue), and mixed (yellow) counties in the United States as of March 2012. (''See [[List of dry communities by U.S. state]]''.)]]

The Twenty-first Amendment does not prevent states from restricting or banning alcohol; instead, it prohibits the "transportation or importation" of alcohol "into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States" "in violation of the laws thereof", thus allowing state and local control of alcohol.<ref>U.S. Constitution, Amendment XXI, Section 2.</ref> There are still numerous [[dry county|dry counties]] and municipalities in the United States that restrict or prohibit liquor sales.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jeff Burkhart |url=http://nationalgeographicassignmentblog.com/2010/08/19/the-great-experiment-prohibition-continues/ |title=The Great Experiment: Prohibition Continues |publisher=National Geographic Assignment |year=2010 |access-date=November 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227183011/http://nationalgeographicassignmentblog.com/2010/08/19/the-great-experiment-prohibition-continues/ |archive-date=December 27, 2010  }}</ref>

Additionally, many tribal governments prohibit alcohol on [[Indian reservation]]s. Federal law also prohibits alcohol on Indian reservations,<ref>18 USC, § 1154</ref> although this law is currently only enforced when there is a concomitant violation of local tribal liquor laws.<ref>{{cite web|title=Survey of American Indian Alcohol Statutes, 1975–2006: Evolving Needs and Future Opportunities for Tribal Health|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7634942/Survey-of-American-Indian-alcohol.html|date=March 1, 2008|author=Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs|access-date=January 24, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119001130/http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7634942/Survey-of-American-Indian-alcohol.html|archive-date=January 19, 2012}}</ref>

After its repeal, some former supporters openly admitted failure. For example, [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]], explained his view in a 1932 letter:<ref>{{cite book | title =Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center | publisher =Viking Press | year =2003 | location =New York | pages =246–247 | title-link =Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened, and crime has increased to a level never seen before.}}

Some historians claim that alcohol consumption in the United States did not exceed pre-Prohibition levels until the 1960s;<ref>{{cite web|title=The Jazz Age: The American 1920s – Prohibition |publisher=Digital History |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=441  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060906144226/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=441 |archive-date=September 6, 2006 }}</ref> others claim that alcohol consumption reached the pre-Prohibition levels several years after its enactment, and has continued to rise.<ref>{{cite web | title =Did Alcohol Use Decrease During Alcohol Prohibition? | publisher =Schaffer Library of Drug Policy | url =http://druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults1.htm | access-date =November 7, 2013 | archive-date =February 9, 2014 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140209223207/http://druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults1.htm | url-status =live }}</ref> [[Cirrhosis]] of the liver, a symptom of alcoholism, declined nearly two-thirds during Prohibition.<ref>[http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=441] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061006232716/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=441|date=October 6, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-3/209-219.htm |title=The Epidemiology of Alcoholic Liver Disease |publisher=Pubs.niaaa.nih.gov |date=September 29, 2004 |access-date=May 26, 2013 |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> In the decades after Prohibition, any stigma that had been associated with alcohol consumption was erased; according to a [[Gallup Poll]] survey conducted almost every year since 1939, two-thirds of American adults age 18 and older drink alcohol.<ref>{{cite book|author=Garrett Peck|title=The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet|year=2009|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick, NJ|isbn=978-0-8135-4592-9|pages=22–23}}</ref>

Shortly after [[World War II]], a national opinion survey found that "About one-third of the people of the United States favor national prohibition." Upon repeal of national prohibition, 18 states continued prohibition at the state level. The last state, Mississippi, finally ended it in 1966. Almost two-thirds of all states adopted some form of [[local option]] which enabled residents in political subdivisions to vote for or against local prohibition. Therefore, despite the repeal of prohibition at the national level, 38% of the nation's population lived in areas with state or local prohibition.<ref name=childs>{{cite book |last=Childs |first=Randolph W. |title=Making Repeal Work |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=Pennsylvania Alcoholic Beverage Study, Inc. |year=1947}}</ref>{{rp|221}}

In 2014, a [[CNN]] nationwide poll found that 18% of Americans "believed that drinking should be illegal".<ref name="Hanson2015">{{cite web |last1=Hanson |first1=David J. |title=Repeal in America (U.S.): 1933 – Present |url=https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/repeal-america-u-s-timeline-history/ |publisher=Alcohol Problems & Solutions |date=December 26, 2015 |access-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-date=March 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301132732/https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/repeal-america-u-s-timeline-history/  }}</ref>