Pot is what alcohol used to be.
It’s an industry ready to take off, but one that’s still finding its way, and one whose progress is not exactly encouraged by the federal government. It’s a little bit like Prohibition 2.0.
The alcohol industry – now eight decades after states ratified the 21st amendment and ended prohibition – generated $475 billion in economic activity and $110 billion in wages in 2014.
Across the United States, more than 4.5 million people work in alcohol-related jobs. Alcohol production, distribution, sales, and service is one of the biggest industries in the country.
We’re a long way from the 13-year saga of prohibition. But it didn’t end overnight.
In March 1933, President Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen-Harrison Act, which legalized the sale of “near beer,” containing 3.2% alcohol or less, as well as similar alcohol-lite wine.
The ratification of the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment and, at the end of 1933, ended the U.S.’s decade-plus run of alcohol abstinence.
Sort of.
Prohibition resulted from many years of groups fighting for temperance to curb alcoholism, family violence, political corruption (related to saloons, taxes, licensing, and revenue), and a general debasement of society.
In one big way, it worked.
By 1933, the percentage of American adults that consumed alcohol had been cut in half. But there were side effects.
With alcohol illegal, production, distribution, and sales went underground. With modern communications (telephones) and delivery (cars and trucks), organized crime took over the trade and flourished.
In 1925, five years after prohibition started, roughly 50,000 speakeasy clubs operated in New York City alone. With all of that commerce off the books, cities and states lost tremendous revenue.
As the Great Depression took hold, people from all corners started calling for the end of prohibition…
Consumption was lower than before, but not eradicated. And the trade created criminals. By making alcohol legal again, tax revenue would flow back to governments and crime would drop.
Sound familiar?
Passing the 21st amendment didn’t make alcohol legal nationwide. States and local governments could still restrict the industry as they saw fit. The last state to end prohibition was Mississippi… in 1966.
Today, there are still “wet” and “dry” towns across the country, and locations considered “moist,” that have some restrictions on alcohol sales and consumption, like days it can be sold or requiring memberships in private clubs.
Welcome to the crazy patchwork of regulations and licenses – and slow rollout – that await the marijuana industry.
Read about the Marijuana Revolution at BusinessInsider.com