Yesterday me and my brother were having a conversation about marijuana being illegal I found it really surprising that marijuana is still illegal throughout most of the world despite the scientific evidence suggesting that is safer than alcohol later he went on saying that it was the same thing with alcohol. I told him that my general knowledge from studying world history, and US history that alcohol was only illegal during the Prohibition era which was from the 1920s to the 1930s, if I am correct, however before that I found it really strange that alcohol was illegal before the Prohibition era based on the fact that whiskey in America was a very important part of the independence movement. I thought that the only logical reasoning for alcohol being illegal is that it was reserved only for the elite anyways I've been having a hard time finding evidence for his claim.
Both before and after the duration of the Volstead Act, which prohibited alcohol in the entirety of the United States, there have been state governments (the earliest being Maine in 1948) and local governments prohibiting alcohol. At present, there is no statewide prohibition in any state, but some states (Kansas and Tennessee immediately come to mind) require counties to specifically pass laws allowing the sale of alcohol.
The European countries which managed to successfully (success being defined as actually enacting legislation) prohibit alcohol were Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. While Finland's prohibition was both enacted and repealed shortly before the same events in the United States, Iceland's prohibition was repealed in 1989 (though it had been watered down over the years) and the Faroe Islands kept theirs until 1992.
I apologize for my English and grammar for is not my first language thank u