Prohibition

The Prohibition was the period between 1920 and 1933 in the United States, when the manufacture, purchase, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited by the [Volstead Act]?, enforcing Amendment 18 to the United States Constitution. It was repealed in 1933 by Amendment 21.

While Prohibition did much to reduce the consumption of alcoholic beverages by Americans, they were still widely available at speakeasies? and other underground drinking establishments, and many people kept private bars to serve their guests. Even many prominent citizens and politicians later admitted to having alcohol during Prohibition.

It also presented lucrative opportunities for organized crime to take over the manufacture and distribution of alcoholic beverages. [Al Capone]?, probably the most famous bootlegger of them all, built his criminal empire largely on profits from illegal alcohol.

On both of these points the modern [drug war]? has been compared to Prohibition. Critics of the drug war argue that when you attempt to prohibit an item which people want you can never really get rid of it, so you only make it more profitable and create crime. There is wide disagreement as to the validity of this argument.

The term prohibition is also used to refer to other laws banning the sale and consumption of alcohol, in particular, local laws that have the same effect. The 21st amendment, which repealed nationwide prohibition, explicitly gives states the right to restrict or ban the purchase and sale of alcohol; this has led to a patchwork of laws, in which alcohol may be legally sold in some but not all towns or counties within a state.