Resolved: Alcohol should be prohibited in the United States.

It is often said that we must learn from history. We have tried banning alcohol in the past during the Prohibition Era, and that has led to horrendous consequences such as the St. Valentine Massacre. We have tried banning drugs such as marijuana, yet the US remains the #1 consumer of illegal drugs. Clearly, banning our problems does not make them go away; instead, it fuels the problems. To clarify the debate, we are debating whether the creation and sale of alcohol should be illegal in the United States. In other words, should a modern-day 18th Amendment be re-added to the Constitution. I will begin by rebutting my opponent's contentions and then move on to express my own. My opponent's first argument states that since there is no legitimate need for alcohol, it should be banned. However, this is illogical. Luxurious mansions or expensive cars are not "legitimate needs," does that provide sufficient rationale to ban them too? My opponent's second contention claims that banning alcohol will save thousands of lives, and he cites the example of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. However, banning alcohol will have the opposite effect: it will cause even more deaths. During the Prohibition Era (1919-1933 in which alcohol was banned), underworld dealings grew at exponential rates, mafias and crime syndicates ruled the streets, and as many as 10,000 people died from poisonous alcohol substitutes [1]. Prohibition changed crime from unorganized bandits to highly evolved and organized mafias. The infamous Al Capone rose to power because of Prohibition, and the number of homicides and assaults increased by 13% [2]. Banning alcohol will only incite more organized crime and more deaths. Next, my opponent contends that banning drugs in the US has worked, so banning alcohol will work too. That could not be farther from the truth. Since the US began its War on Drugs, it has spent over $39 BILLION just in 2010 so far [3]. But the results could not be more undesirable. The United States is THE world leader in illegal drug use; "Americans were four times more likely to report using cocaine in their lifetime than the next closest country, New Zealand (16% vs. 4%)" [4]. According to a survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2004, an estimated 19.1 million Americans over 12-years-old are current users of illegal drugs [5]. Clearly, banning drugs has not affected the number of Americans taking these drugs. Even under Prohibition, over 1 million gallons of alcohol were illegally imported into the United States; that's not counting the millions more illegally produced in the United States [2]. Finally, my opponent argues that Prohibition backlash will eventually dissipate. In this contention, my opponent rightly assumes that "a black market will inevitably be created;" however, he wrongly assumes that only "a few wealthy [people] can afford to purchase alcohol illegally. " Let's refer one more time to drugs. A black market has most definitely been created, but most illegal drugs are predominantly found in low-income areas. The same thing happened under Prohibition. Now, I will develop my own case. First, banning alcohol will have drastic economic effects. The alcohol industry is one of the most heavily taxed industries in the United States. In 2007 alone, over $5.6 billion was raised in alcohol taxes, and every year this number increases by 5% [6]. During times of economic recessions and gaping budget deficits, it seems silly to literally lose $5.6 billion of the budget. To make up for the loss, the government would have to either tax the American people another $5.6 billion or cut vital services such as education grants or defense spending. Furthermore, the cost of the War on Drugs already totals over $1 trillion; are we really going to spend another trillion dollars on a fruitless endeavor? Second, banning alcohol will not solve any problems, and could potentially make them worse. The number one reason why adolescents try alcohol is to look cool. The same applies to illegal drugs. Making marijuana and other drugs illegal does not take away the "cool factor," rather it increases it. Once something is off-limits, it becomes more desirable; banning drugs increased the "cool factor" of the drugs. The same thing will happen to alcohol; banning alcohol will make it cooler, so more people will try it. References: [1] Blum, Deborah. "The Chemist's War: The Little-told Story of how the U. S. Government Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition, with Deadly Consequences", Slate. Washington Post, Feb. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. [2] . http://www.albany.edu... [3] . http://www.drugsense.org... [4] . http://www.cbsnews.com... [5] . http://www.infoplease.com... [6] . http://www.taxpolicycenter.org...