Our modern world is full of crime. But with the latest revolutions in forensic technology, organized crime is on the decline. However, another danger has become increasingly popular in recent centuries; alcohol. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2010 alone, 10,288 people died due to crashes caused by a drunk driver. Intoxication is also a major contributor to rape in the United States, as rape/sexual assault requires the victim not to give consent OR the victim to be incapable of giving consent, and intoxication from alcohol is classified as incapable of giving consent. due to alcohol's ability to impair judgment. (Al Capone: A Biography). With these facts aligned like this, you might wonder why we haven't banned these things yet. The answer lies in the “roaring twenties,” when banning alcohol wasn't very successful. The Eighteenth Amendment was put into effect to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and transportation of all intoxicating liquors. Shortly thereafter, the Volstead Act, named after author Andrew J. Volstead, went into effect. This supplementary law defined intoxicating liquor as anything having an alcohol content greater than 0.5%, omitting alcohol used for medicinal and sacramental purposes; this act also establishes guidelines for enforcement. Prohibition was intended to reduce alcohol consumption and thus reduce crime, poverty, mortality rates, and improve the economy and overall quality of life. This, however, was undoubtedly useless. (Prohibiton, Jeff Hill). After the Volstead Act was put in place to determine precise laws and methods of enforcement, the Federal Prohibition Bureau was created to see that the Vo...... middle of paper .... ..s to abolish the Eighteenth Amendment during his campaign. He kept his word, and nine months after taking office, Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment. (Biographies of the Roaring Twenties). Clearly, Prohibition didn't do what it was supposed to do. It hasn't solved any problems: crime hasn't decreased, the economy hasn't grown, and alcohol consumption hasn't decreased. In reality, on all three fronts, the exact opposite occurred. The only question, though, is why it took so long for Americans to realize they had made a mistake. Canada established a prohibition law in 1917 and abandoned it two years later, but it took stubborn Americans more than thirteen years to swallow their pride and pass the 21st Amendment, whose sole purpose was to repeal the 18th. (Ban, Jeff Hill). It leaves you wondering; we are better off with or without alcohol?