Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Prohibition Amendment.
The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence.
In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. In January 1919, the 18th amendment achieved the necessary two-thirds majority of state ratification, and prohibition became the law of the land.
The Volstead Act, passed nine months later, provided for the enforcement of prohibition, including the creation of a special unit of the Treasury Department. Despite a vigorous effort by law-enforcement agencies, the Volstead Act failed to prevent the large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages, and organized crime flourished in America. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.
Let’s be clear. Alcohol prohibition did NOT end because the states came to their senses, realized all the damage prohibition had done to our society, all the crime, police corruption, judicial corruption, disrespect for the law, disrespect for the government, all the violence, all the deaths, all the in-home drinking and violence against women, etc. it had done. They ended Prohibition of alcohol because the states, having lost hundreds of millions in revenue because of the first great depression, had also lost millions in tax revenue to the underground alcohol economy. They needed these funds back in their pockets.
It is no different from what is going on in states across America. Cannabis is not being legalized because there is a growing support for freedom, liberty, or the belief that individuals have the right to own themselves and their bodies. The ONLY measures that are being allowed on the ballot for votes, are those that include massive government bureaucracies, massive “sin” taxes to fund more government boondoggles, and all sorts of other government-enhancing powers that are the complete opposite of “freedom.”
The government considers EVERYTHING illegal unless they can figure out a way to get a piece of the action.
Of course, there were no consequences.
Hey, government’s don’t have to take any responsibility for the historically-voluminous, 100% predictable, consequences of the black markets they create through the banning of otherwise consensual behaviors by supposedly sovereign individuals. Per my post above, governments didn’t learn one goddamn thing from Prohibition (except maybe that making drugs illegal and controlling the illegal drug trade, would provide them a massive revenue stream they could keep off the books to fund clandestine CIA activities, gun sales to central American rebel groups, and governors of midwestern states to look the other way while the planes landed in Mena).
One thing noticeable is they required a constitutional amendment to outlaw alcohol. Today, they don’t even both with that, such as with the drug war, because apparently people no longer realize an amendment is required. Meaning, all federal drug laws are unconstitutional. But that’s what decades of government-run schools does to society.