Prohibition was the 18th Amendment that banned alcohol. This happened in 1920 and lasted a little over a decade until 1933. Most people agreed and helped pass the amendment because they didn’t believe in alcohol. There were a lot of effects to banning alcohol, most were bad.

There were a lot of causes to Prohibition. They include the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, crime, lack of production, and people wasting their money on alcohol. The Woman’s Temperance Union was a group of women that helped pass the amendment. They were completely against alcohol and didn’t want anything to do with it because they didn’t like how it made their husbands beat them. The waste of money on alcohol led to a lack of production. After work, men would go to a bar, or saloon of their choice and drink. The men wouldn’t come home until late at night, then would wake up late. This would lead to the lack of production; no work meant no products. When people  would waste their money on alcohol they had no money for actual needed things. Another reason people wanted Prohibition was that people drinking caused a lot of crime. Fifty percent of crime was cause by alcohol. Drunk men would beat up their wives and children when they came home. But most of all it was unpatriotic to drink after WWI because much alcohol  was made in Germany and they didn’t want anything to do with them after the war.

After the Prohibition Amendment passed, there were a lot of negative effects. There was more crime after it passed but it was different, this was “organized crime”. Al Capone was one of the most famous gangsters of Chicago. He sold the most illegal alcohol, that made him the richest gangster in the city. He made $1 million dollars each year. Of all the crazy illegal crimes he did, he got caught and arrested for tax invasion. There was a lot of organized crime in major cities like Chicago. Most crime was involved speakeasies, rumrunners, and bootleggers. Speakeasies were hidden bars and saloons that required a passcode to get in. When you were in there you had to “speak easy” so police couldn’t hear you. Bootleggers were people that carried alcohol in their boots and some even tied it behind their back. Rumrunners were people who illegally carried alcohol across the bodrers by car.

More bad effects of Prohibition were that the economy went way down hill and the number of deaths increased. The economy got bad because the government shut down a ton of bars, saloons, etc. They lost around $11 billion in tax revenue. It took over $300 million to enforce Prohibition. Deaths were caused by the government poisoning liquor and tainted liquor being sold. An average of 1,000 people died each year during Prohibition.

The Prohibition Amendment was a failed attempt to make the US a better place by banning alcohol. To take it away another Amendment was made. The 21st Amendment was the ONLY amendment to repeal anther one. The 21st Amendment passed December of 1933 to make alcohol legal again.