The Prohibition

Prohibition:

By the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution, ratified in January 1919, the prohibition is introduced in the United States. Now, it is prohibited to manufacture, sell and buy on federal territory all beverages containing more than 0.5 percent. 100 alcohol.

Prohibition provides an opportunity attractive to organized crime to set up import routes, factories, or an illegal distribution of alcoholic beverages in the United States especially through speakeasies. In Chicago the Genna, family of Sicilian origin, and Al Capone were at the head of the trafficking of alcohol, greatly enhancing their criminal empire with profits generated by the illegal sale of alcohol. Eliot Ness opposed Capone in a legendary battle. He does not succeed in breaking down the offense for serious harm (sale of alcohol or murder), but had to resort to the invocation "privileges indivisible human right" to Al Capone fall within the scope of federal law, bypassing the legislative jurisdictions (protecting corrupt judges Capone locally). It is lived sentenced to the maximum sentence (11 years) for tax evasion. In total, the Prohibition laws were poorly enforced. There were several arrests, but no convictions. Several factors explain this inefficiency: first, the police and the judges were corrupt, then the federal government lacked the resources to enforce the prohibition because the borders of the United States are immense.

Many social problems were attributed to the era of prohibition. A black market in alcohol, profitable and often violent, flourished. The racket comes when powerful gangs corrupted agencies whose mission was to ensure the prohibition. Alcoholic drinks gained the most popularity because their strong intoxicating power made their smuggling more profitable. Finally, enforcing the prohibition was a high cost which, added to the lack of income provided by taxes on alcohol (about 500 million U.S. dollars annually for the whole country), has started the hard financial reserves U.S. state.

In April 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt repealed the Volstead Act, which defined the prohibition, which allowed the State to levy new taxes.

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