Education Establishment - Course
Introduction
The prohibition of alcohol use coupled with its availability in the U.S and forced people to use the drug in a more dangerous way than they would mostly access it through criminals and criminal groups, who stepped into mastermind of the sale and use of alcohol. Gangsters and mobsters like Al Capone did not like the prohibition of alcohol in the U.S and, therefore, they stepped into the selling of it oversee and use of alcohol in the U.S. The outcome of the repealing of alcohol ban is very similar to the circumstances around the legalization of Marijuana. Alcohol in the U.S was banned in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. The sudden end for the use of the drug meant that the users and the parties involved had to take action in order to ensure that they quench their thirst. It is the reason that a number of illegal bootleggers cropped up. The use was not conditioned because there were no laws to direct or curb the use of the drug. The essay is going to discuss the similarity of alcohol and Marijuana prohibition and repeal as well as the best alternatives that could be found to the total prohibition of both in the American society.
In 1917, the 18th Amendment was passed by Congress to prohibit the use of alcohol. January 17, 1920, the law was in effect to prohibit the use of alcohol in the U.S. The Temperance Movement in the 19th century triggered the push for the law as alcohol was considered a grave evil, then the drug had to be abolished in order to find its soul. This notion prompted more activity in prohibiting the use of the drug. What the U.S. did not realize is that there were better measures to deal with the menace than prohibition. The aftermath of the ban was productive. As the population seemed to rest, statistics show that there was a reduction in delinquency cases. The prohibition worked to bring advantages and disadvantages at the same time. The use of alcohol tended to ebb away and liver Cirrhosis fell. The fall was estimated at 66 percent in men. The ban worked to bring down 1,300 businesses that dealt with brewing alcohol. It meant that the law was working for the good of the administrators. The country lost tax revenues in a sense of drops in taxes. The tax revenue dropped from an initial $482 to $13million. This was the effect on the government revenue collection. There were also a number of arrests due to alcohol use and abuse that tended to decline by half. The negative effect of the ban became transparent with the springing up of organized crimes and criminals. The criminals worked to control the use of alcohol and they were not satisfied with the state law prohibiting the use of the drug. There was also the sprouting up of drug traffickers that worked to reach the ready market. The most significant negative effect that was brought up by the ban was the uprising of sale and use of potent whiskey than even the use of wine and beer. Instead of responsible use, the users turned to cheap and dangerous use of alcohol. It is the prohibition of alcohol in the U.S that taught America the importance of regulation of the field and education 3. It was realized that the prohibition of use of the drug was not helping the situation but instead making it worse. There was a lot of irresponsible behavior brought by the illegal use of alcohol and to make matters worse the industry could not be regulated but the drug made its way to the drinkers. The banning or prohibition of alcohol in the USA led to more inventions into the use and sale of alcohol in the state. The problem is that curbing the prevalence in the use and distribution of alcohol in the suburbs and back alleys became a hard task. It is the reason that the ban had to be repealed so that the state of affairs could be corrected. The main reason was to bring the liquor back on the table, legalize it and oversee its production and use. It had been proposed that the use of alcohol led to a number of delinquent behaviors. The behavior spanned corruption, violence and even organized crime. It means that the groups came up immediately the use of alcohol was prohibited. Therefore, as much as the drug had been banned in the U.S. its use was still underway and that many people were wasting away due to the prohibition of the drug. At the same time, the prohibition of the use of alcohol gave rise to a new method of using the drugs. The use of alcohol became worse as organized crime sprouted and took over the illicit use and monitoring of the drug. There was more violence in the dens in which the people drank. There are situations when the criminals became resilient to the government agents overlooking the monitoring for use of the drug. The prohibition did not simplify the situation in the use of alcohol. Instead the Eighteenth Amendment seemed to bring more users onto the field of alcohol use. The prohibition gave the alcohol responsible users’ ideas. They were supposed to drink alcohol and, therefore, they ganged together to look for the alcohol and use it. The means to find alcohol was not justified as there was no regulation and individuals were bound to just do things their way. The prohibition gave them the ideas to be innovative in the use of the drug and sources of the drugs so as to avail it and use it.
Marijuana came to the limelight in 1920’s as an intoxicant. In the U.S., it gained fame because of the violence that it induced into the victim. The violence was seen in immigrants who used the drug as they were published in tabloids and the narcotics body. The target for the various publications was to push the Congress to recognize the danger of the drug and make it illegal under the Marijuana Tax Act was enacted in 1937. Numerous publications continued to put out the negative aspects of the drug. In 1970, the drug was controlled by the signing of the Controlled Substance Act into law. The law categorized Marijuana as a schedule I narcotic 3. The focus was to eliminate the drug from the streets and protect the people from the various delinquent behaviors that were experienced among the immigrants. The drug was considered addictive, deadly and worked to make the user violent. There were a lot of efforts to eliminate it from the streets. The ban on Marijuana also took a chance to teach the U.S. that regulations are more important than elimination of use. The prohibition of Marijuana tends to create a similar situation like that of alcohol where organized criminals come up with the drug traffic and sell it to the market without prohibition. The effects are more prevalent than as the drug was legal for use. It means that the industry requires regulations and education more than the prohibition of the drug.
It is said that the prohibition of alcohol use and the repealing of the same are associated with the prohibition of Marijuana. The eruption of black markets and organized criminal acts has been prevalent with the cause being the prohibition of Marijuana. This means that the industry requires a better method to deal with the problem of crying abuse rather than prohibition. The solution can be found in the better regulation of the use of drugs and alcohol as well as in the better education given to the society in order to explain the responsible use of Marijuana. A significant part of the American population believes that the drug has to be legalized so that the government can deal with the abuse openly. The problem comes when the use of the drug, the source and even the preparation of the drug cannot be regulated. Illegal traffickers and dealers can bring anything to the table from synthetic concoctions to more substance mixing just to get the drug to the market. This is a health hazard, which works to demean the efforts of the country to curb the use and spread of Marijuana. There can be more positive that come with legalization of Marijuana. This means that the sources of the drug will be known and more so taxes can be applied to the drug trade. The application of taxes on the drug will bring to the government more funds to deal with the onset results of its use. The drug can find its way into the market where the use and availability is monitored to the extent of establishing the authenticity of the drug. It cannot be argued that there are positive aspects of the use of Marijuana and alcohol in, for example, medical prescriptions. Neither are they good for health nor the general behavior of the users. The health effects and the proper use of the drugs have to be established in order to observe some benefits of their use. For example, the use of Marijuana can be beneficial to AIDS patient who need to boost their appetite for food. The benefits can be reaped as they seem more viable than just the use of substitutes. The use of Marijuana as an anesthetic has been proved to be more effective in cancer patients than Dilau did the known painkiller. It means that the legalization of Marijuana will be taken into the medical field to bring more solace to the suffering of the patients.
Conclusion
The legal steps in prohibition of alcohol and Marijuana use are very similar. In both situations American government decided that total control over the spread of the alcohol or drugs would be the best form to eliminate them from the market. The ban for the alcohol use was canceled soon. However, marijuana prohibition has existed longer than the other mistakes of social engineering of the twentieth century. Crime in the form of drug cartels and criminalization of consumers caused more harm to society than the drug itself could cause. In fact, it was proved that drugs can have beneficial effect in medicine. There are states in the U.S. that have already legalized the use of Marijuana for medicinal purposes. Therefore, more is yet to come as regulation and education are the only required means to ensure that the use of Marijuana is effective and that its health defects to the society are checked.
Bibliography
Garcia, C. 2014. How Marijuana's Fight for Legalization Closely Parallels the Prohibition of Alcohol in the Early 20th Century. February 10. Accessed March 20, 2016. http://www.latinpost.com/articles/7101/20140210/marijuana-legalization-medical-california-florida-new-mexico-colorado-washington-alcohol.htm.
McLaughlin, C. E. 2012. Marijuana Advocates hope to rise from 'Prohibition'. December 4. Accessed March 20, 2016. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/01/us/marijuana-legalization-and-prohibition/.
Rosenfield, D. 2014. 80 Years Ago today we Repealed AlcoholProhibition, now its Time to End Drug Prohibition. February 4. Accessed March 4, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-rosenfeld/prohibition-repeal-drug-war_b_4392354.html.
