Prohibition In The 1920's

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Prohibition is the 18th Amendment, it was started in the 1920’s and made the selling, consuming, possessing and making of any alcoholic beverage illegal. The aftermath of prohibition made organized crimes increase, especially in more popular cities. Crooks got more rich and more violent as they tried to fight for control of alcohol sales and later on in the 1930’s, other illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution grew. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 and was sent to the states for votes. The debate of prohibition ended up dividing the city and rural residents, ethnic groups, social classes and religion. Some things that prohibition was supposed to do was lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support …show more content…

Some ways these two topics correlate with each other are the rise in crimes and the usage amount of alcohol and drugs. The rise in organized crimes associated with prohibition also brought a significant increase in violent crimes. Batteries, and assaults increased by 13% but murder rates flew out of the park in all major U.S. cities. In the case of drugs, 26% of the victims of violence reported that the offender was using drugs or alcohol. In 2004, 17% of state prisoners and 18% of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs. Alcohol usage increased heavily by about 60 through 70 percent from the pre-prohibition level. The 1920’s through the 1930’s group were younger than the other groups when a drink habit was formed. In the past year the percentage for criminal activity pertaining to selling drugs was 15.1 %. Drug use and crime are ordinary aspects of a deviant lifestyle. According to the U.S Department of Justice, “ The likelihood and frequency of involvement in illegal activity is increased because drug users may not participate in the legitimate economy and are exposed to situations that encourage crimes.” (1994) The U.S Department of Justice also said, “ Drug users are more likely than nonusers to commit crimes, that arrestees and inmates were often under the influence of a drug at the time they committed their offense, and that drug …show more content…

On the other hand, Drugs are heavily judged by non-users, making it more demeaning, and it’s more of an underground thing because of its social standing- being demeaning. As you’re reading you already know the difference from these mentioned substances; drugs and alcohol. The timing of these events are from prohibition- the 1920- 1930’s and for the Modern Day War on Drugs it is still on-going from about 40 years ago. I would say alcohol is more accepted because you can buy basically any alcohol beverage at liquor stores, making them a more common sight than drugs being used or distributed. Drugs are sold more on an underground basis to

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