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The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. [1] The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and Prohibition was formally introduced nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919.
Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol, c. 1921. The Bureau of Prohibition's main function was to stop the sale and consumption of alcohol. [5] Agents would be tasked with eliminating illegal bootlegging rings, and became notorious in cities like New York and Chicago for raiding popular nightclubs. [11]
In 1919, the requisite number of state legislatures ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, enabling national prohibition one year later. Many women, notably members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, were pivotal in bringing about national Prohibition in the United States, believing it would protect families, women, and children from the effects of alcohol ...
At 12:01 a.m., Jan. 17, 1920, America was cut off. Saloons closed their doors. Taps stopped flowing. People stockpiled their whiskey, beer and wine to weather the dry spell that would last 13 years.
The amendment banned production, sale and transportation of liquor; but consumption was allowed. One year after ratification, on January 17, 1920, Prohibition began.
When alcoholic beverages were first banned under the Volstead Act in 1919, the United States government had little idea of the severity of the consequences. [1] It was first thought that a ban on alcohol would increase the moral character of society, but a ban on alcohol had vast unintended consequences. [2]
Like every other state in the United States, driving under the influence is a crime in New York and is subject to a great number of regulations outside of the state's alcohol laws. New York's maximum blood alcohol level for driving is 0.08% for persons over the age of 16 and there is a "zero tolerance" policy for persons under 16.
Founded in 1893 in Saratoga, New York, the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) started in 1906 a campaign to ban the sale of alcohol at the state level. Their speeches, advertisements, and public demonstrations claimed that prohibition of alcohol would eliminate poverty and ameliorate social problems such as immoral sexual behavior and violence.