Digesting the 21st Amendment
Introduction
I am not a drinker; I am seventeen. But even as someone who doesn’t fully realize the effects and significance of alcohol in our society, I can recognize simple freedoms and liberties, like being allowed to drink alcoholic beverages, even if I was always told growing up that it wasn’t necessarily a good thing to do. So I view the 18th Amendment, the prohibition of alcohol, as an amendment that did more harm than good being passed: it infringed on simple drinking rights, it stunted economic growth, and encouraged illegal alcoholic distribution and a rise in criminal activity. Which is why I am glad that the 21st Amendment was introduced to repeal the prohibition of alcohol as a good thing, short and …show more content…
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. The first section of the amendment is pretty cut and dry: the 18th Amendment, the prohibition of alcohol, is repealed and no longer in effect. This was done to reverse the negative effects prohibition had on society at the time. The second section is a little more ambiguous and harder to define due to possible conflict with the Commerce Clause-more specifically the dormant Commerce Clause. Because of this, there have been many different interpretations of this section, especially by the Supreme Court. In 2005, the Court decided that States must hold in-state and out-of-states to the same level, and offered their most limited interpretation of Section 2 …show more content…
Yes, too much alcohol can have damaging effects on a person in more ways than one. Too much of anything can be damaging to a person in more ways than one. It is up to the people consuming the beverage to be drinking responsibly and with moderation as to not mess up their bodies or minds. Bringing back the distribution and manufacturing of alcohol stimulated the country economically, as well. The industry was reborn and needed people to man it and take up jobs throughout its various sectors, providing millions of jobless people with ways to make a living for themselves and their families. And I can easily get behind the reduction of crime going on in the country. Yes, the crooks could still be crooks and rob, steal, and murder. But the idea of bootlegging looked a lot less necessary now that the bars were open and people didn’t need to hide their drinking. Therefore, speak-easies and the illegal distribution of alcohol were a lot less profitable for said criminals. You would not have to look far at all to find someone who shares a similar opinion: those who initially were for prohibition eventually grow to despise it, and supported the 21st Amendment. Them, plus everyone who was against prohibition from the start, including those organized crimes syndicates, all make up a considerable group of people who would have seen the 18th Amendment repealed in a