It’s #repealday, the day the United States ended the prohibition of alcohol.
86 years later, it’s time we end the federal prohibition of Cannabis once and for all.
Legalize it. Regulate it. Expunge the records of the victims of the war on drugs.
Strong argument, correct?
Well, not really as its historically incorrect.
First of all, contrary to the way its often assumed, the repeal of prohibition didn't actually open the consumption of alcohol across the country. Rarely appreciated in the story of prohibition, a huge wave of state prohibition statutes had been passed prior to the Federal government entering the picture with a Constitutional amendment.
The real lesson, in regard to both the prohibition of alcohol and marijuana may be there, as its a story of misplaced Federal overreach.
Left along, the majority of American states were rocketing toward alcohol prohibition in the 1910s and many had already arrived there. Wyoming got there months ahead of the Federal government in 1919. Colorado also had, with "bone dry" prohibition already coming into effect.
Had prohibitionist not sought to impose prohibition over the entire country, the entire country may have gotten there on its own. It was getting there. But the Federal entry forced it on areas that weren't ready to accept it. And that got the opposition to it really rolling.
Indeed, you have to wonder to what extent the country would remain dry if the Volstead Act and the Constitutional amendment had never been done. My guess is that a lot more of it would be today. Contrary to what is imagined today, it was an extremely popular movement prior to national prohibition becoming the law. And its overall success, in terms of national health, would speak for themselves if they were allowed to speak at all.
Indeed, one of the often missed aspects of the repeal of prohibition is that a lot of states, Wyoming included, used the repeal to fall back on their state prohibition laws, which had not been repealed, and work on new alcohol laws that controlled the trade much more strictly than had been the prior case. States like Wyoming did follow the national lead, but they didn't go back to the open free for all that had been in place before.
The story of marijuana may be similar. States made it illegal long before the Federal government entered the picture in the 1970s Now that states are rushing away from their own state laws the Federal government isn't enforcing the Federal law, which is bad. It would have been better, probably, if the Federal government had never entered the picture. If it hand't, by now we'd have a longer history on what making it legal may mean, and I suspect the looming health disaster its likely to be, would be causing a lot of pause now.
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