National Prohibition Ended 80 Years Ago
Eighty years ago our country made a big constitutional change:
The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states’ approval. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day. (History.com)
Today many counties in the country remain dry or semi-dry:
33 states have laws which allow localities to prohibit the sale (and in some cases, consumption and possession) of liquor. Still, many of these states have no dry communities. Three states, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, are entirely dry by default: counties specifically must authorize the sale of alcohol in order for it to be legal and subject to state liquor control laws. (Wikipedia)
From the same Wikipedia article:
Missouri state law specifically prohibits any counties, or unincorporated city or town from banning the retail sale of liquor, but only allows incorporated cities to ban the sale of liquor by the drink by public referendum. No incorporated Missouri cities have ever chosen to hold a referendum banning alcohol sales. In addition, Missouri state law specifically supersedes any local laws that restrict the sale of alcohol. (see Alcohol laws of Missouri)
At least in this regard, Missouri is a blue state.
— Steve Patterson
I’ll drink to that! Why is it always the South that lags behind?
Southern Baptists. Kind of like the Mormons in Utah, up until the Winter Olympics, using government to regulate morality and individual behavior, usually with great hypocrisy. (I started college at a small school in a dry county in Kentucky. The campus was far from dry – the fundamental rule was “no original containers” – the administration wanted to be able to argue that “he could be drinking a urine specimen, for all I know” and there was a liquor store at the county line on every major road out of town.)
But what would be interesting, in 20 or 30 years, will be to see what the marijuana restriction map looks like . . . .
Not just the S. Baptists and Mormons…there are plenty of religious groups that want to regulate everyone and everything else….as long as you don’t regulate them (and let them keep their non-profit status).
Ok, this is weird: I’m agreeing with both moe and JZ…at the same time.
There’s hope for this country yet, eh?
National ALCOHOL prohibition ended eighty years ago, but the even worse cannabis/industrial hemp prohibition continues, with the gangsterism and political and law enforcement corruption that goes along with it.