Why did Prohibition fail?

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Why did Prohibition fail?

        National Prohibition of alcohol (nineteen twenty – nineteen thirty-three)--the "noble experiment" or the Eighteenth Amendment, Is one of the biggest mistakes of the Untied States. It was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. Prohibition, also known as the Eighteenth Amendment, was ratified on January twenty nine, nineteen twenty and was repealed on December fifth, nineteen thirty-three with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment which nullified Prohibition.

              The Eighteenth Amendment stated that it was illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages in the United States.  It was a good attempt to solve problems, but America went about it the wrong way.  She instead, created even more problems such as organized crime, increased alcohol consumption, over crowded prison systems, and the surge in the growth of the Mafia.  Not only was this a step in the wrong direction, it was an action that increased the problems that America was already facing.

        People believed that Prohibition would fail and that it was a violation of a person's privacy while other people thought that Prohibition would do nothing but improve America.  People who were against Prohibition were called wets and people for it were called dries.  Wets mainly consisted of Democrats who refused to stop drinking and who were usually older men or immigrants who drank all their life.  The dries were usually Republican Protestants who believed alcohol was evil and that Prohibition was the answer to society’s problems.

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        Prohibition failed because there was lack of public support. The people of America wanted alcohol because some people were addicted and could not stop. Some people wanted it because it created employment for the country because when the saloons closed so many people lost their jobs.

The illegal alcohol made at home called ‘moonshine’ was very dangerous because at manufacture the conditions around the still were very unhygienic and caused germs to get in which caused diseases for the drinker. Deaths from alcohol poisoning went up from ninety-eight in nineteen twenty to seven hundred and sixty in nineteen twenty-six.

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