Happy 80th Anniversary to the end of Prohibition

   December 5, 2013 is 80 years after the official lifting of that failed social experiment, Prohibition. On Dec 5, 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression, the 21st Amendment to repeal Prohibition became official.

   The consumption of alcohol dropped significantly when Prohibition first went into effect in 1920, but then grew as people largely ignored the law. (There was no law against drinking, just production, sales and transport).  What Prohibition did give us was organized crime and a big loss of revenue from alcohol taxes.

   Eighty years later we are still feeling the effects of Prohibition. Laws enacted at that time to control alcohol are still in effect. Things like dry counties, no Sunday sales, and state-run liquor stores. Plus the biggest issue, the three-tier system, where the middle men, the wholesales, still try to control all sales via the various state legislatures. So people in some states are freer than others to get a drink of what they want when they want it.

Amen Brother!
Image from mendobrew.com