...The Role of Prohibition and its Fluidity The American Dream during the 1920’s was truly wonderful to Americans, and to some, was only a dream. This “dream” had just about everything someone needed to live an exciting and happy life. Money would not always be a problem. However, there was one thing missing from their lives that caused uproar. That would be the absence of alcohol in the daily lives of Americans. Prohibition, or the Eighteenth Amendment in the Constitution, made the production and consumption of alcohol illegal. Those who added this Amendment believed that alcohol was entirely bad thing. All it did was create problems, and to get rid of the source of it (being alcohol) would solve and prevent them. Sadly, that did not happen. Widespread law breaking and violence were two of the handful of issues created by this deprivation of alcohol. It was a law that had good intention, but ceased to be successful due to Americans’ strong desire for “some” unnecessary drinks. Prohibition was hoped to be beneficial to all of the Americans. It was the idea of saving America from sadness and sin that ended up with the creation of the Eighteenth Amendment. Looking at it from this point of view can make many people nod their head in agreement when said that Prohibition was a beneficial and overall positive thing. If it was thought to aid America and save it from any kind of harm, then people would never think of it as a hindrance to their enjoyment of life. However, the result...
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...to as the Great Depression, was not enough, the early 19th century also came to be known as the age of Prohibition. For many years prior to the 1920s, a growing number of people had feared the damage alcohol could do to America. After years of work by organizations such as the Anti-Saloon League, the Eighteenth Amendment was passed and prohibition started on January 16, 1919 and continued until December 5, 1933. Although it was formed to stop drinking completely, it ended up being a resounding failure. It created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol. Even most Americans viewed the amendment as a challenge and...
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...16th, 1919 was nicknamed the “noble experiment” by U.S. President Herbert Hoover. It brought about some of the greatest changes in society that the United States had ever experienced. The 18th amendment banned the sale, transportation, and production of alcoholic beverages. It was brought about by the Temperance Movement, which was a time period in which many Americans felt a desire to put a greater focus on Christian principles. Despite the goals of the “Prohibition” amendment, the United States saw a monumental harmful shift into a deteriorating nation filled with corruption, organized crime, and financial failures. After nearly fourteen years of prohibition, the 21st Amendment was passed on December...
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...hope to show that drug prohibition policies in the United States, for the most part, have failed. Additionally, I will highlight and evaluate the influences acting on individual legislators' decisions to continue support for these ineffective policies as a more general demonstration of Congress' role in the formation of our nation's drug policy strategy. Finally, I will conclude this analysis by outlining the changes I feel necessary for future progress to be made. Primary among these changes are a general promotion of drug education and the elimination of our current system's many de-legitimating hypocrisies. However, before the specific outcomes of Congressional influence and policy impact can be evaluated it becomes important to first review the general history and current situation of drugs today. Our present drug laws were first enacted at the beginning of the century. At the time, recreational use of narcotics was not a major social issue. The first regulatory legislation was for the purpose of standardizing the manufacturing and purity of pharmaceutical products. Shortly after, the first criminal laws were enacted which addressed opium products and cocaine. Although some states had prohibited the recreational use of marijuana, there was no federal criminal legislation until 1937. By contrast, the use of alcohol and its legality was a major social issue in United States in the early 20th century. This temperance movement culminated in the prohibition of alcohol from 1920...
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...drug remains arguable. In some countries such as America, the drug is illegal, while it is legalized in other countries such as Jamaica. Research has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the spread and use of the drug among populations is deep-rooted even in countries where it is illegal. This stamps a question on the illegality of the drug and the effectiveness of its prohibition status. The beneficial documented facts about legalizing the drug critically surpass the benefits gained if it is prohibited. Everything in this world has two faces, the positive, and the negative. Individuals have personal freedom that is protected by the constitution of a given country. Prohibition of marijuana induces restrictions to the excise of this freedom by those who use it (Rosenthal, Kubby, & Newhart, 2003). The government has a right to withhold this freedom, only when its use interferes with or harms another individual. The use of marijuana has neither known direct interference effects to non-users nor does it harm the health of the user; this is unlike other legalized drugs such as alcohol. Therefore, the prohibition is illegal when it limits the freedom of self-determination accorded to all human beings. Religious expression is another freedom individuals are entitled to and has to be protected and respected by the government and law. Individuals uphold different beliefs and religious practices; curtailing the religious practices of one religion and upholding the other’s is...
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...In today's society, the prisons of America appear to cause more problems than assistance. The country penal system is expensive, overcrowded, and some argue that it is ineffective as well as inefficient. The cost to build, staff, and support these facilities increases dramatically each year. Prisons, which were created to be humane correctional facilities, are currently filled with violence, hostility, and a communal fear. These institutions are meant to control crime by deterrence, incapacitating criminals. This may protect society from potentially dangerous individuals, but these institutions' level of accomplishment is askew. The financial burden attached to the building, maintaining, and staffing of prisons constantly plagues the penal system. During the late 1960s, New York built prisons at a price of $2 million each. Since then, prices have risen dramatically. In 1990, each prisoner required $15,496 to support (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”). A prison containing 2,000 inmates amounts to over $31 million to operate on an annual basis. The United States spends an estimated $60 billion each year on corrections (Prisons in the United States). The operation price is synonymous with the level of security, ranging from the supermax, containing serial killers, to the minimum security, containing drug offenders. Violence is not confined to outside prison walls. In 2005 alone, federal and state prisons reported 885 incidents of sexual violence. Of the aforementioned...
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...Shakib Hossain Causal Argument English 191 February 2015 Why the War on Drugs Failed “For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground”. These words by famous musician Jello Biafra may sound prejudiced, but it is the truth we all live and have lived by since the prohibition era. The war on drugs has become a significant issue in today’s society, but people are not completely sure why the war on drugs has failed. In reference to Jello Biafra, the war on drugs is a type of a prohibition, but the real question is how big of an underground has this war created that it has ultimately failed. The start of the war on drugs can officially be dated as far back as 1971 when Richard Nixon declared drug abuse as “public enemy number one”, and he increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies (Drug Policy Alliance, 2014). Later, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the number of people incarcerated for drug abuse shot up sky high due to his zero tolerance policy, and the unpredicted rise of illicit drug use. When we say the war on drugs has failed, we usually consider that the use of illicit drugs could not be reduced and is on the rise. However, it is also because it is costing more and more lives every day in addition to all the resources used coming out of the taxpayers’ pockets. In short, the war on drugs has failed because the government enforced punishment instead of prevention, which led to creating a black market that increased crime and corruption...
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...Surrounding Marijuana The violence that surrounds marijuana is a major concern for a lot of people, some people believe that it can be changed by legalizing it and therefore taking away the drug cartels number one source of income. The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy ... says that more than 60 percent of the profits reaped by Mexican drug lords are derived from the exportation and sale of cannabis to the American market (Armentano2). It is ridiculous to think that the United States can put out a statistic like this and ignore the fact that if they legalized the drug there would be less violence because there would be no point for Mexican drug cartels to try and smuggle the drug into the U.S. In the article “Blame Prohibition, Not Pot Smokers for Violence in Mexico”, published by AlterNet.org, Tony Newman tells us how the people who run the “Just Say No” campaign against drugs have a new scheme in which they plan to blame people who smoke pot for the violence in Mexico. They are hoping to stop younger people from smoking marijuana if they associate it with the murder of people by the drug cartels in Mexico. There are a few problems with these campaigns: They are inaccurate in some cases, and downright dishonest in others.Office of National Drug Control Policy It is disingenuous to connect the average American's marijuana consumption to the horrific violence of Mexico's drug war. The average pot smoker's growing and purchasing of marijuana has no relationship...
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...businesses. The New Deal was successful to a certain extent in dealing with America’s problems in the 1930s. This can be assessed through factors such as helping the less fortunate, social reform, political reform and economic effects of the New Deal. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1933, immediately after he was elected he set up the ‘Alphabet Agencies’ as a means of providing relief to those affected by the depression and to help the less fortunate. One ‘Alphabet Agency’ was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), it was set up to provide clothing grants and soup kitchens for the poor....
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...As public attitudes towards drugs begin to change, and the failure that is prohibition slowly dies, the populace is demanding a better drug policy from the state. The status quo of developed nations’ drug policies is prohibition, which has had minimal success to date. It continues to unfairly punish those who choose to use narcotics, and only harming themselves. In 2008, the United Nations estimated that globally, approximately 200 million people took illicit drugs at least once in the past year. The use of illicit drugs has proven to be nearly impossible to control, and the state would be better off allocating its drug enforcement resources to other sectors, such as drug treatment. Portugal portrays an accurate depiction of the effectiveness of a decriminalized state focusing on harm reduction. The state’s drug policy should be a total legalization of all drugs, with an emphasis on harm reduction, public health, and strict regulations. Prohibition has caused more harm than good for minorities and developing nations. For over a century, prohibition was believed to be the only effective method of controlling drug usage; this is no longer the case. Thus, the main objectives of prohibition are pointless to begin with. The current prohibition laws have created vast economic disparities for millions of minorities. The skewed enforcement of drug laws on minorities allows for discretionary arrest, making victimization is all too easy. Tougher drug laws are the reason why 29% of black...
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...Beshears, Laura: Honorable Style in Dishonorable Times: American Gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s Journal of American Culture (33:3) [Sep 2010] , p.197-206. Honorable Style in Dishonorable Times: American Gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s Laura Beshears. The Journal of American Culture. Malden: Sep 2010. Vol. 33, Iss. 3; pg. 197, 10 pgs Abstract (Summary) Prohibition, which came into effect in July of 1920 with the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment, also illustrated the progressives' idealism, as many believed that the elimination of alcohol, because it allegedly created "poverty, marital distress, and negligence," would cleanse society (Mordden 141). [...] the birth of the radio and the movies as well as the development of flight induced excitement and fostered a vision of a society engaged in perpetual technological advancement (Mordden 47). [...] Horatio Alger, Jr. and his late nineteenth-century books- portraits of men who, born underprivileged, rose to wealth and success through hard work, honesty, self-confidence, commitment, and a bit of luck (Weiss 53-54) - characterized the progressive spirit, as it encouraged people to work hard for a better future and for the fulfillment of the American dream. Full Text (5892 words) Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Sep 2010 "You don't need to be ordering fancy duds," Frankie Rio advised his boss as a tailor took measurements of Capone's swollen physique at the Lexington Hotel. "You're going to prison. Why don't you...
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...Reform Movements The reform movements were Abolition, Education, Mentally Ill and Prisoners, Peace, Temperance, Utopianism and Communitarianism, and Women’s Rights, and their goals were to abolish slavery, improve the education systems, improve mental asylums and prisons, establish peace, remove or moderate alcohol, create utopianistic societies which emphasized community, and achieve equality between men and women, respectively. Abolition, as seen by Frederick Douglass’ work and William Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, demanded all slaves be emancipated immediately and given equal rights to those of white men. Considering Blacks have equal rights in America today, we can assume this movement was a success, eventually....
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...Dismuke 1 Charles Dismuke Ms. Lopez English II 5 April 2016 Disillusionment and failure in The Great Gatsby In the book The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the theme of disillusionment, love, lust and failure in order to portray the “American dream”. The American dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Many believe that the American dream is “earned”, but what they don't know is that there is a lot of “behind the scenes” money making deals that occur. And these deals put you at the top without even asking. For example Gatsby wasn't the perfect man that he was imagined to be. Jay Gatsby's real name was, James Gatz and the change seemed right when he “reinvented” himself. Gatsby didn't like being the son of farmers and was embarrassed about where he was from. “His imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all.” He changed it at the age of 17 because of his transformation when he met Dan Cody. This one of the main reasons he hid his background from people. The other was that in reality Gatsby was indeed an unrepentant criminal, who bootlegged his way through the Prohibition to create his wealth and pursue his dream. The prohibition was a nationwide constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933...
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...author, known best by the pen name, Dr. Seuss. Theodor Seuss Geisel, was an American author, poet, political cartoonist, animator, book publisher and artist. He was best known for his authoring of over 60 children’s books. Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He died September 24, 1991 in La Jolla California. His father owned a brewery up until prohibition times, in the 20’s. His father then took a position as a superintendent of city parks which also included the local zoo. At the zoo, Dr. Seuss spent many of his days drawing the various animals. Developing his own unique style from his imagination, he came up...
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...A little lizard was walking through the forest to see his pal the monkey. The monkey called out “Hey little buddy come on up here, I have some really good weed”. So the little lizard climbed up the tree, where he and the monkey smoked a great big joint. The little lizard said “Hey this stuff is great, but I have a wicked case of cottonmouth”. “Well”, said the monkey, “there’s a river just down the road”. So the little lizard climbed down the tree, walked through the brush and started to drink the water. All of a sudden a crocodile came out of the water. “Hey little buddy, what’s up?” said the crocodile. “I just got stoned with my pal the monkey and came down here for a drink of water”. “Really?” said the crocodile, “Where is he? I want to smoke some, too”. “He’s through the brush and up the tree”, said the lizard. So the crocodile walked through the brush and came to the tree. The monkey looks down from the tree and says, “Holy geez, little buddy how much did you drink??” We laugh when we hear jokes like this, but the fact of the matter is, current marijuana laws in the United States make possessing and being under the influence of pot no laughing matter. It is my resolution that the United State of America should legalize both the medical and recreational use of marijuana. This will benefit our country and its people by ending prohibition and the extremely high cost of pursuing it; it will open up a revenue stream with the potential to move or country toward financial solvency;...
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