THE PROHIBITION ERA

The Legal and Ethical Aspects of the Prohibition Era

The Legal and Ethical Aspects of the Prohibition Era

Introduction

The prohibition era was an attempt to legislate mortality knows as the Nobel Experiment which lasted from 1920 to 1933. It was established through the eighteenth amendment which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol in US. This step was taken to reduce the moral evils associated with alcohol, but this never happened as it amplified the crime rate thus creating more and new types of offenses such as bribery. The eighteenth amendment was repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933. For a number of people the prohibition era was a time of upheaval and strife. Throughout the nineteenth centre a number of portions of the US were swept by Temperance Movements, but the first opportunity to the anti-alcohol movements was provided by world war one to enact a nationwide ban on alcohol. Organizations of different social classes and businessmen had come to have great importance in the new movement. The first of these companies was "Temperance British Medical Association" made up of British doctors in 1876. Specific organizations have been founded for clergy, teachers, railway workers, and workers and are striving with increasing success in forming international partnerships. The "Union Women's Christian Temperance" founded in the United States in 1873, became a global partnership in 1883 and then joined several national associations (some quite small) in Europe. While the prohibition of alcohol in America from 1920 to 1933 decreased about 15% consumption, diseases, accidents and deaths caused by ingestion, but on the other hand created unintended contexts, as deaths from adulterated drugs and the emergence of the sadly famous gangs nationwide with its immense power of bribery and corruption that reached the police, judges and politicians (Gitlin, 2010).

Discussion and Analysis

Ethical Aspect

Temperance Movement

The first movement of temperance in the United States rose due to the reaction against intemperance that threatened to make the Americans a nation of drunks. The peak periods of intemperance were seventy-five years between 1750 and 1825, and the prohibition era between 1920 and 1933. Almost everyone drank intoxicating liquors, and it was the family beverage that was the predominant sign of hospitality. It was considered impolite, even an insult, to reject it. In all functions, public and private, social and commercial, sacred and solemn, intoxicating drinks were consumed. Not only it was considered essential liquor on such occasions, but dominated the mistaken belief that one cannot perform hard work without the stimulant drink. Alcohol was provided to laborers and mechanics share of liquor, twice a day, to the sound of the bell, which summoned them regularly at eleven and four o'clock. The farmer provided alcohol to their workers when hired for the harvest, which would receive a certain amount of liquor, usually whiskey or rum in New England. It was assumed that the hard liquor made strong men. This assumption was called into question until it was clear the fatal effects of drinking habit in the crowd ...