When we hear about alcohol prohibition’s failure in the 1920’s and 1930’s. we never seem to hear much about exactly how it came to an end. In fact, it ended, in large part, because state, local and individual resistance caused the whole system to collapse.
In addition to proliferation pf speakeasies and large numbers of Americans openly defying alcohol prohibition, state-level resistance also played an important factor. According to the comprehensive book Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History, 28 states stopped funding prohibition enforcement by 1928, and local police were “sporadic in their enforcement efforts.” Some states even went as far as enacting laws to ban law enforcement from enforcing prohibition.
State legislators were not shy in expressing their disgust and disdain with the federal laws. In a 1925 address to Congress, Maryland State Senator Cabell Bruce stated:
National prohibition went into legal effect upward of six years ago, but it can be truly said that, except to a highly qualified extent, it has never gone into practical effect at all…
It (prohibition) has brought about close working relations between the bootlegger and thousands of the most intelligent and virtuous members of American society who feel no more compunction about violating the Volstead Act than the Free Soiler did about violating the fugitive slave law…”
Sen. Bruce had it right. Prohibition was one of the worst policies ever devised. It was so bad, in fact, that our modern-day Washington DC bureaucrats had to repeal it.
Prohibition’s modern day incarnation is, of course, the federal drug war. It has given us similar results. In the many decades that the federal drug war has been waged, drug use has soared, street drugs have become more potent, violent gangs have risen, and prison populations have swelled.
Thankfully, history is repeating itself again. Americans have not forgotten their rich history of fighting back against senseless federal measures through state-level resistance. This is how it was done then, and it is how it is being done now. One need look no further than the 20-plus states that have legalized marijuana in varying degrees to see how it’s working.
Join us, and help us as we hammer the final nails into prohibition’s coffin. It has failed spectacularly during two separate historical eras. Enough is enough. We have the plan to work through the states to make the federal drug laws completely unenforceable. When we band together, there is no option for the feds other than surrender. It is time to stand together to bury prohibition once and for all. Help us achieve peace on our streets by ending the federal drug war from the bottom up!
