page_title: Prohibition
section_title: 18th Amendment to the Constitution
hierarchical_section_title: Prohibition / North America / United States / 18th Amendment to the Constitution
context_page_description: Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced.
context_section_description: In December 1917, Congress submitted a constitutional amendment on nationwide prohibition to the states for ratification. The new constitutional amendment prohibited "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes". It was ratified and became law on January 16, 1919, assuring its passage into law. On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, which provided enabling legislation to implement the Eighteenth Amendment. When the National Prohibition Act was passed on October 28, 1919, thirty-three of the forty-eight states were already dry. After a year's required delay, national prohibition began on January 16, 1920.
  During the first years of Prohibition, the new law was enforced in regions such as the rural South and western states, where it had popular support; in large urban cities and small industrial or mining towns, however, residents defied or ignored the law. The Ku Klux Klan was a major supporter of Prohibition; once it was passed they helped with its enforcement. For example, in 1923, Klansmen traded pistol shots with bootleggers, burned down roadhouses, and whipped liquor sellers, and anybody else who broke the moral code. The Prohibition was effective in reducing per-capita consumption, and consumption remained lower for a quarter-century after Prohibition had been repealed.
  Prohibition reduced alcohol consumption but did not stop it. Drinking itself was never illegal, although manufacturing and sale of alcoholic beverages was outlawed, so people who had bought alcohol before January 16, 1920, could and did continue to serve it privately. In addition, the illicit market soon grew to about two-thirds its pre-Prohibition levels. Illegal stills flourished in remote rural areas as well as city slums, and large quantities were smuggled from Canada.  Bootlegging – and the related speakeasies – became a major business activity for organized crime groups, under leaders such as Al Capone in Chicago and Lucky Luciano in New York City. Indeed, Capone became a national symbol of Prohibition's violent side and was a top target for President Hoover.
caption: Prescription form for medicinal liquor
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