Prohibition

To Drink, or not to Drink...

That is the Question.

Prohibition laws were enforced easily in rural communities where the population was most sympathetic. But in the cities, an enormous industry grew up around the production, transportation and sale of contraband beer and liquor. The bootleggers (named after the practice adopted by travelers in the Midwest in the 1880's, who concealed liquor in boots when trading with Indians) began by importing booze over the Mexican and Canadian their borders, and from the Caribbean.

Smuggling became harder when customs officials got wise and bought some faster boats. The gangsters then resorted to other means to acquire their liquor. "Medicinal" whiskey was still available in drug-stores, on real or forged prescriptions. Denatured alcohol, legally used in other industries and treated with noxious chemicals to render it undrinkable, was "washed" of its poisonous additives and diluted with tap water. Worse still, illegal corn liquor stills were used to produce frequently toxic "rotgut". Coroner’s reports for the first five months of 1923 reveal that a hundred people had perished from drinking contaminated hooch. Officials at the time believed the figure to be much higher.

Source:http://www.ephidrina.org/alcohol/prohibition.html

The 1920’s had grew around many ideas of how American life should be lived. Supporters of prohibition felt as if alcohol led to an increase in crime, poverty, and violence against women and children in the United States. Even though liquor was illegal during this time, many people still went to ‘speakeasies’ which where secret pubs that served alcohol. Soon after the law was passed, what some thought would be the end of wrong doing, happened to be the beginning of an out-of-control rebellion. So what do you think about the Prohibition?