On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, thus ending our nation’s failed experiment with Prohibition. Organized crime flourished during Prohibition, but what were the other effects of the national ban on alcohol?
How and why was it repealed? Michael A. Lerner, author of Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City presents the history of Prohibition, and a panel featuring Glen Whitman, Asheesh Agarwal, and Radley Balko discuss Prohibition's lasting impact- Cato Institute
Bio
Asheesh Agarwal
Asheesh Agarwal is a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice. Before that, he served as Assistant Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Office of Policy Planning.
Brandon Arnold
Before joining Cato in 2005 as director of government affairs, Arnold served as manager of external affairs in Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich's energy office. As such, he coordinated energy policy and legislative initiatives for the agency and testified before several committees of the Maryland General Assembly.
Arnold has also worked as a senior legislative aide to Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., as a policy analyst for Citizens for a Sound Economy, and as a research analyst for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Arnold holds a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Radley Balko
Balko is senior editor at Reason magazine. Previously, he was a policy analyst for the Cato Institute, specializing in vice and civil liberties issues.
He writes on drug policy, police misconduct, obesity, alcohol and tobacco, and civil liberties. He also writes on trade and globalization issues and more generally on politics and culture. He is also a biweekly columnist for Fox News. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, TIME magazine, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, Reason, Worth magazine, Canada's National Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
He blogs at The Agitator, his personal weblog, and for Reason's Hit and Run. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, and National Public Radio.
Michael A. Lerner
Michael A. Lerner is Associate Dean of Studies at Bard High School Early College in New York City. He is the author of Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City.
Glen Whitman
Glen Whitman is an Associate Professor of Economics at California State University, Northridge and author of Strange Brew: Alcohol and Government Monopoly.
Legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. In the U.S., the Prohibition movement arose out of the religious revivalism of the 1820s. Maine passed the first state Prohibition law in 1846, ushering in a wave of such state legislation. The drive toward national Prohibition was fueled by the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893. With Prohibition already adopted in 33 states, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect in 1920. Prohibition was embraced with varying degrees of enthusiasm in different parts of the country, and enforced accordingly. In urban areas, bootlegging gave rise to organized crime, with such gangsters as Al Capone. In part because of the rise in crime, its supporters gradually became disenchanted with it. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th in 1933, and by 1966 all states had also abandoned Prohibition.
the current PROHIBITION of CANNABIS as just a plant must be repealed ,, treat it like TOMATOES.. HUMANS have had their HUMAN rights to use , grow & posses this natural plant , TAKEN AWAY by authorities who have MORAL & RACIST ISSUES on their agenda. AMERICA is in the hands of greedy powerful prison building & drug pharma groups with NO GOOD intentions. PROHIBITION is an extremely pervasive EVIL that continues to do much DAMAGE around the WHOLE WORLD.
however , many countries have seen the light & are reforming this reppressive stance on their own citizens. COMPASSION & CARE ,,, when did you last hear these words in a prohibitionist argument ? consider the "TOMATO MODEL" we should be free to grow & use as we please. GO the "TOMATO MODEL" or try to prohibit tomatoes, that's how how obscene & ridiculous this drug law really is.
EDUCATE NOT INCARCERATE.
The problem with the distribution system is that only one distributor can carry one brand. Take Miller Lite, Miller Lite is only going to sign with one distributor in a region.
member. 
