On this day, a century ago, the Volstead Act came into effect in the United States, beginning 13 years of alcohol prohibition…

It was a dark period when our leadership banned alcohol in the US, and deprived its citizens of all the rich customs associated with drinking, an intrinsic part of our social fabric.

Whole professions disappeared or went underground…Prohibition fostered in organized crime. And those who enjoyed drinking alcohol (and the pleasurable buzz that goes with it) where forced into the shadows like many who smoke pot today.

In order to avoid the government’s wrath, Americans who choose to continue drinking lived duplicitous lives …Drinking alcohol had in essence become criminalized by the state, and with that a large segments of its citizens were judged criminals.

Eventually the country’s leadership woke up to the widespread problems that Prohibition had created and support for the ill-conceived law began to wane.

Incensed citizens and major figures like John D. Rockefeller Jr joined a growing chorus of Americans who championed a counter-movement which eventually led to this atrocious law being overturned.

The 21st Amendment, which spelled the end of Prohibition, was ratified on December 5, 1933 and the world immediately became a more reasonable place.

Freedoms can be lost in the blink of an eye when people don’t pay attention…And we can only hope that something like Prohibition never happens again…