18th Amendment Congress Essay Example for Free

18th Amendment Congress Essay Congress is who was involved with the 18th amendment which was ratified on January 16th 1919 and went into effect on January 16th, 1920. This amendment was signed in Washington by congress. The 18th amendment prohibits the sale, consumption, distribution, import, and export of all liquors. During the world war prohibitionists made it seem patriotic to conserve grain for the war effort and not to make alcohol. The prohibitionists thought that a sober soldier was a good soldier and a sober factory worker was a good factory worker. Section 1: states that, after one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. Section 2: the congress and several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Section 3: this article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the constitution by legislatures of the several states, as provided in the constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the congress. After the 18th amendment was in effect underground bars called speakeasies were built. By 1927 there were more than 30,000 speakeasies around the country. Famous gangsters like Al Capone made over 100,000 dollars a year. The Volstead act was crucial to the success of the 18th amendment. It gave the federal government enforcing ability. Also it defined criminal penalties except for medicinal or religious ceremony use. The levels considered intoxicating were 0.5% anything over that limit was illegal. From 1911 to 1929 deaths caused by cirrhosis of the liver in men dropped to 10.7 men per 100,000 from 29.5 men per 100,000. By the end of the 1920s there were more alcoholics and illegal drinking than before prohibition. To undo one constitutional amendment it takes another one to undo it. The 21st amendment which is the first and so far the only amendment to restore rights that were taken away from a previous amendment. In 1932 both parties called for the 18th amendment to be repealed. In 1933 congress passed a resolution proposing the repeal. After prohibition was repealed the separate states were the ones that had to govern their own alcohol laws. Most states made the legal age 21 but some states had the age be only 18. No national drinking age existed until 1984 when the national minimum drinking age act was passed. I do not think this amendment should be brought back because it caused many problems and it was almost impossible to enforce. In conclusion, the 18th amendment caused too many problems and should never be brought back because of everything that went wrong.