Alexander Walter ECON 1200 Denise Rogers 13th November 2014 Amendment 18: Prohibition Since early America, alcohol has been a time honored pastime of our culture and that in which we have stemmed from. On December 18, 1917 that would appear to be at an inevitable standstill. On said date, Congress passed the 18th Amendment; prohibiting the sale, manufacturing, and transportation of alcohol. The Amendment would be ratified January 16th 1919. The 18th Amendment holds three sections, specifying the federal perspective on alcohol.
The marijuana prohibition was enacted in 1937, just three years after the alcohol prohibition ended. After a failed attempt with alcohol, the government must have felt they needed to try and take away another civil liberty, so they tried it on the new popular drug of the time, marijuana. During that period the people were glad to be ridden of the gang violence, notorious of the 1920’s and 1930’s, so they went along with most of what the government said and did, thus making marijuana illegal. Many people also speculate that racism was a large factor in the illegalization of marijuana, as many Mexican workers and black jazz musicians favored using it. In most states it was and still is a felony to posses any marijuana or paraphernalia.
The background for the rise of the organized crime and mobsters like Al Capone was the prohibition law. In January 1920, The American government passed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, also known as the Prohibition Law – The manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages was made illegal. The government believed that it would help to improve the quality of American lives and protect the families from the effects of abuse of alcohol, but it instead of reducing the crime, it caused the opposite – Mobsters saw this as a great opportunity to take over the importing industry (Bootlegging), manufacturing and distributing of alcoholic drinks, which caused to a growth in crime. Another reason for the popularity of the organized crime was also the great depression in the late 1920's – People needed to provide for their families, and being part of the organized crime was an easy way to make money, because of the high demand for alcohol. Al Capone was born in January 1899 in Brooklyn to a family of Italian immigrants.
Mexicans can smuggle just about anything across the border and upon this realization came the Mexican drug cartel boom. “The Columbians began heavily relying on Mexican smuggling prowess in the 1990’s as Columbia’s larger criminal factions dissolved into smaller groups” (Mexico’s Internal Drug War, 2006). The Columbians soon began selling cocaine at wholesale price to Mexican cartels, which caused the rival cartels (the Sinaloa cartel and the Juarez cartel) to battle over the control of the profit. “The downstream revenue is largely dictated by points of entry into the United States, such as Nuevo Laredo, and points of reception from Columbia, such as Acapulco” (Mexico’s Internal Drug War, 2006). The demand for drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana, in the United States has steadily increased in the last few decades.
When I sell liquor, it’s bootlegging. When my patron serves it on a silver tray on Lake Shore Drive, it’s hospitality - Al Capone (Hill 69) On January 17, 1920 the 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution went into effect. Called the “noble experiment” by Herbert Hoover, this addition to the Nation’s most sacred of documents, restricted the manufacture, transport, importation, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States (Okrent 37). The intentions regarding this revision were to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems and improve health and public morality in America. In this period, having a few drinks on lunch break was common practice and the legal drinking age was 15 (Pegram 91).
However, the illegal cultivation of marijuana cost taxpayer money and puts citizens’ and law informant’s lives in danger. Publication highlight the risk citizens and law informants take when entering many part of California’s public lands. Mexican drug gangs cultivate illegal marijuana farms on public land across California and kill to protect their marijuana
Research Proposal on Drug Trafficking in the US Ashford University English Composition II 12 November 2012 Topic: Complete Eradication of Drug Trafficking in the US The wide scope of this paper and the core nature of the problem for this research proposal is the Drug trafficking in the United States and most specifically the eradication of the vice in the United States. This topic was chosen so as to correspond this study with the National Drug control strategy that is annually developed by the president. This paper will narrow the specific claim to the fact that the United States has been able to deal with this issue a great deal to some extent but this has led to the new problem of poverty and addicts who are unable to access the drugs (Whitehouse.gov, 2011). The claim if further investigated leads to the findings that if the United Sates was to set a resolve that is focused on legalizing some of the drugs, crimes related to drugs including the trafficking would go down considerably. The famous phrase that the forbidden fruit is sweetest is very common and very actual thus if some of the drugs were to be legalized this would greatly help in alleviating the widespread use of drugs and the crimes related to drugs altogether (National Drug Control Strategy, 2011).
South University Legalizing Marijuana Computer and Literacy ITS 1000 Michael L Smith October 18, 2013 Michael L. Smith Computer and Literacy: ITS 1000 Instructor: Carmen Flores October 18, 2013 Legalizing Marijauna In regards to illicit drugs, an epidemic that has a stronghold on our country caused a movement. That movement was and still is today, “the war on drugs”. Illegal drugs enters this country at an unexplainable alarming rate. In the United States alone the drug market is one of the most profitable in the world. (Agency, 2004) My intent is not to focus on the profitability of illegal drugs but the debate of legalization in particularly marijuana.
The Prohibition of alcohol passed in to law in 1920 until 1933, which restricts or prohibits the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcohol and beverages, was a failure. The prohibition laws however, created the first generation of U.S. narcotics agents that worked for the federal alcohol prohibition agency. In 1930, Congress separated drug prohibition from the increasingly disreputable alcohol prohibition and created a new federal drug prohibition agency, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed by the committed alcohol prohibitionist Harry J. Anslinger (Epstein, 1977; Musto, 1987). History of The War on Drugs : In June of 1971, Nixon officially declares a "war on drugs," identifying drug abuse as "public enemy No. 1.” In 1973 Nixon created and funded the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to coordinate the efforts of all other agencies.
After looking into all the issues of legalizing marijuana and looking at the pros and cons, the only conclusion we should come to is to legalize it. Aside from our feelings against it, it makes no sense not to legalize it. To make it legal, and stop all the hardcore drug enforcement would save the U.S at least a couple billion dollars. Legalizing it would also bring revenue of up to $6.2 billion annually by taxing the sales of it. Plain and simple, we need to legalize marijuana.