75^th Anniversary of Prohibition Repeal:

Let's Do It Again!

By Dale Gieringer (adapted from the West Coast Leaf, Winter 2008)

         This December 5^th marks the 75^th anniversary of the repeal of alcohol prohibition. On that date in 1933, the 21^st Amendment was adopted, repealing the 18^th Amendment, which had outlawed the sale, transport and manufacture of "intoxicating liquors."

The 18^th Amendment was passed in the wake of World War I hysteria, not long after the first anti-drug laws. The Amendment supplanted an earlier, provisional wartime prohibition act, which had been passed to aid the war effort and save grain that might otherwise be used for beer and whiskey.

The nation officially went dry on January 17^th, 1920. Almost immediately, alcohol began leaking back through the black market, ushering in an era of unprecedented crime, corruption, and bootleg gangsterism. As time went on, public uneasiness grew, but the nation remained in the thrall of prohibitionism. As late as 1930, Texas Sen. Morris Sheppard declared, "There is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail."

The wet tide came as suddenly as a winter storm surge. The Great Depression altered the public mood and boosted the clamor for drink. Wets argued that alcohol taxes would stimulate the economy and replenish the Treasury. The wets gained control of the Democratic party, and with FDR's support, the party endorsed total repeal at its 1932 convention.

The Democratic landslide of 1932 spurred the lame-duck Congress to action. By February, the Congress had passed out a repeal amendment. It called for the amendment to be ratified by the unprecedented procedure of state conventions, instead of state legislatures, because it was feared the latter were gerrymandered to over-represent conservative rural districts. Repeal conventions were promptly called around the nation, in which wets overwhelmingly prevailed by margins of 60% - 85%.

On December 5^th, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah jockeyed to become the 37^th state needed for repeal. At 3:32 PM, Utah finally put repeal over the top. Within hours, anti-prohibitionists were celebrating with champagne and cocktails at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York (no telling where the liquor came from).

Actually, the nation had already celebrated on April 7^th, when Congress modified the still-operative Prohibition law, the Volstead Act, to permit sales of beer with up to 3.2% alcohol. Within a week, the government had reaped some $4 million in revenue from beer sales.

In the end, repeal didn't solve the Depression, but Prohibition came to be recognized as a disastrous national mistake. The drug laws, which date from the same era, remain with us still.

Unlike the drug laws, the 18^th Amendment never outlawed possession or use, just transportation, manufacture and sales. Prohibition was therefore milder than the regime we now call marijuana "decriminalization," where possession remains a misdemeanor. In the early days of Prohibition, wets were cautious and sought half-measures like partial repeal. In the end, they won total repeal. December 5^th is a good day for drug legalizers to remember not to lower their sights.