See also: Prohibition (homonymy)

The Prohibition refers to several periods of first half of the 20th century when manufacture, transport, the import, the export and the sale of Alcoholic drink were prohibited in certain countries, like:

  • the Finland (1919 with 1932), called kieltolaki
  • the Canada (1900 with 1948, in a Province, tiny and rural the Island-of-Prince-Edouard (less than 80,000 inhabitants at the time) and for moreover short periods in several other provinces)
  • the the United States of America (1920 with 1933)

Other directions of “prohibition”

Lexicologiquement, the prohibition of something means the prohibition of its presence or its use. This is not always the fact of the laws or a government, as the schools which can for example prohibit the port of the short skirts, or certain religions prohibiting the use of contraceptive means.

With regard to alcohol, the prohibition term in legal jargon, refers also to the other laws prohibiting the sale and the consumption of alcohol, in particular, of the local laws which have an identical effect. The 21e Amendement, which cancelled national prohibition in the United States, explicitly gives to the States the right to limit or prohibit the purchase and the sale of alcohol. This led to a mosaic of laws, by which alcohol can be legally sold in certain places but not in all the cities or all the counties of a State.

Prohibition of alcohol in the world

Canada

It is the province of the Island-of-Prince-Edouard which was the first to vote a Loi in 1900 prohibiting alcohol and the last was the Quebec, in 1919 and for hardly a few weeks.

The provinces then repealed these laws during the Années 1920. Quebec was the first province to withdraw its law as of 1920, imposing prohibition only over the period 1919 - 1920, while that of the Island-of-Prince-Edouard was the last to repeal its prohibition law in 1948.

The United States

In the United States, prohibition was established by the 18th amendment of the Constitution (ratified the January 29th 1919) and by the Volstead Act (established the October 28th 1919). Prohibition began as of on January 16th, 1920, when the 19th amendment took effect. The Volstead Act was amended in order to authorize the not very alcoholic beverages like the light Bière S (not titrating more 3,2  % of alcohol, 4  % in volume) thanks to the Blaine Act of the February 17th 1933. The 19th amendment was withdrawn during the same year by the ratification of the 21e amendment of the Constitution.

Operation and skirtings

Prohibition refers also to part of the movement for the Temperance ( Temperance movement ) which wished that alcohol was made illegal. Then the prohibitionnists , in favor of prohibition appeared. The latter counted already some successes for their cause with their credit. In 1905, three American States had already prohibited alcohol. In 1912, the number of these States passed to nine, and in 1916, prohibition formed already part of the legislation in 26 of the 48 States composing the United States.

After the withdrawal of the federal law, certain States continued to impose prohibition, like the Oklahoma, the Kansas and the State of the the Mississippi which were always “dry” in 1948. The State of the Mississippi, in which alcohol was made illegal as of 1907, was the last State to carry out the withdrawal of prohibition, in 1966.

As of the publication of Volstead Act, the strong demand of the American consumers did not remain unanswered. The existence of a large market potential aroused the interest in close Canada like in Europe. The export trade, perfectly legal, was organized starting from the " heads of pont" that were great Canadian distillings, the British possessions of Bermuda, of the Bahamas and the Belize, but also Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, this archipelago being a French colony where converged alcohols Canadian, French and British, before being charged on the " rum runners" for being introduced on the close continent. This colony then knew years of gold until 1933, year or ended Prohibition

The Incorruptible organized crime and the

Many notable and politicking American admire to have alcohol during prohibition. This discrepancy between the usually allowed legislation and practices nourishes an important and widespread contempt of the population for the authorities of the State, these last being regarded as strong hypocrites. The satire took multiple forms, including famous films like Keystone Kops. Certain personalities of exception will find thanks to the eyes of the American population. Thus, activities of Eliot Born and its team of shock made up of agents of the Treasury, called “the Incorruptible ones” ( The Untouchables in English). Another exception will be the duet Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, agents of prohibition with New York, simply called “ Izzy and Moe ”. The American press will largely cover qualities of these rare examples of probity: the honesty proverbial of Born, allied with its talent for the public relations, the more eccentric methods and more déguisées but however highly effective of Izzy and Moe.

Prohibition provides an opportunity enticing for the Organized crime to set up of the dies of imports, the factories or an illegal distribution network of alcoholic drinks in the United States, in particular through the speakeasies. Al Capone was one of the leaders of these alcohol traffics, reinforcing largely its criminal empire thanks to the profits of the illegal alcohol sales. Eliot Ness will be opposed to Capone, in a combat become legendary. It will however not succeed in making fall the criminal for serious misdeeds (alcohol sale or murder), but will have to resort to the invocation of the “indissociable privileges with the right of the person” to make fall Al Capone under the blow from a federal law, circumventing the legislative jurisdictions (corrupted judges protecting Capone at the local level). This one will be seen imposing the maximum sentence (10 years).

The production of alcohol having fallen into criminal hands or being ensured by clandestine manufacturers escaping any control, the quality of the finished product varied largely. Thus, of many cases of drinkers suffering from blindness or undergoing serious cerebral lesions were indexed after the ingestion of a “ bathtub gin ” concocté starting from industrial alcohol and other chemical poisons. An incident remained in the memories is related to the medical patent ( Patent medicine ) of the Gingembre of Jamaica ( Jamaica ginger ), more known by its consumers under the name of “Jake”. It had a very strong degree of alcohol and allowed those which consumed this drug to circumvent the prohibition of alcohol. The Department of the American Treasury required modifications in the formula of this last to return it imbuvable. Certain retailers of Jake, not very scrupulous, deteriorated their product with a industrial Plastifiant to try to circumvent the governmental tests. Consequently, from tens of thousands of victims suffered with paralysis from the hands and feet, very often in a permanent way. The Distillation amateur of liquor was not without danger to the producer himself, the too primitive material of distillation exploding sometimes, causing fires and devastations.

Generated problems

It will be noted that in the Années 1890, the ethanol was the first containing hydrocarbon one used by the car S. This alcohol was used as fuel for the agricultural machines, the Locomotive S and the cars, whether it is in Europe or in the United States. In 1919, the police force of prohibition destroyed the alcohol distillers of Maïs, who were used to the farmers to produce with low costs their ethanol fuel. The additional expenditure to get containing hydrocarbon ethanol forced the farmers to turn to the Pétrole, which was at the time very little expensive.

Many social problems was allotted to the era prohibition. A Black-market of alcohol, profitable and often violent one, opened out. The racket emerges when powerful gangs corrupted the agencies whose mission were to ensure prohibition. The most alcoholic beverages gained in popularity because their ethyl capacity made them more profitable to make smuggling. To make respect prohibition had a cost high, just like the absence of the income of the taxes on alcohol (approximately 500 million American dollars annually for the worldwide) started the financial reserves of the American State hard. When prohibition ceased, the Organized crime lost a big part of its incomes related to the alcohol black-market, direct consequence of the competition of alcoholic drinks on sale free at moderate prices. The organized crime recycled in the sale of others Drogue S illegal. The black-market rests on the sale of any produced illegal. From a certain point of view, the fight against modern drugs was compared with prohibition. This last argument as well as the validity of the analogy is however criticized.

Prohibition had a notable impact on the industry of alcohol in the broad sense within the United States. At the time when the law was repealed, only the half of the breweries of before prohibition remained still open. The majority of the small breweries were eliminated for good. Since only the industrial breweries survived prohibition, the American Bière came from there to be scorned, the latter not presenting any character, if it is not that to be a consumable of mass. The experts of drink complain about the low quality as much as lack of variety in the production. Some judge that it been necessary to await the Années 1980 to consider that a minimum of know-how was réacquis by the American brewers. Fred Maytag is traditionally credited for the beginning with the revival with the tradition with mixing with beer in the United States, it is the revolution of the Microbrasserie S which left the American brewery its state of complete decline.

See too

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