Prohibition Essays (338 words) - Prohibition In The United States

Gabrialle Mijares U.S. history Brondan Stone 24, September 2015 Prohibition on june 16, 1920, the Volstead Act was passed. The Volstead Act controlled the sale, production, and drinking of an alcoholic beverage containing more than 0.5 precent alcohol. The prohibition act was set up because the crime rate was very high. Many people blamed alcohol for the problems. With the prohibition act in place, many thought that it would lower crime. Supportets of prohibition believed that it would also lower poverty and death rates and reduce the number of rats in the streets. They also believed that it would raise the economy and the quality of life. In all actuality, prohibition caused more problems that it solved. The law proved to be unedforceable . There was the creation bootleggers. Bootleggers made there own alcohol and sold it. With the creation of bootleggers there was also the creation of the black market and organized crime. Organized crime groups would open their own saloons and sell the homemade alcohol. During the prohibition time period there where many deaths from alcohol poisoning. This was because the alcohol that was very potent. Prohibition actually raised the crime rate, death rate, poverty, and destoryed society. work cited Barbour, John "Prohibition revisited: The dry-wet spell". Arizona Republic 4Dec. 1983: Rpt. in Alochol 3. Ed. Eleanor Goldstein Boca Raton: Social Issues Resources Series, 1995 Bragg, Roy " Days of the moonshine wars." Houston Chronicle. 8 May 1988: Rpt. in Alochol 4 Ed. Eleanor Goldstein Boca Raton: Social issues Resources series, 1995. McNutty, Timothy J. " Alcohol gets a sober 2d look." Chicago Tribune. 22 June 1986. Rpt. in Alcohol 3. Ed Eleanor Goldstein Boca Raton: Social Issuses Resources Series, 1995 Prohibition Gary "Beer it's been around a long time" Richmond Times Dispatch 24 Oct. 1982 : Rpt. in Alcohoal 3 Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton : Social Issuses Resources Series, 1995 Smith Christopher J. " The Geography of Drinking" Focus Winter 1986:Rpt in Alcohoal 4 Ed Eleanor Goldstein Boca Raton Social Issues Resources Series 1992