Prohibition

Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; when used by itself the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced.

History

Some kind of limitation on the trade in alcohol can be seen in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1772 BCE) specifically banning the selling of beer for money. It could only be bartered for barley: "If a beer seller do not receive barley as the price for beer, but if she receive money or make the beer a measure smaller than the barley measure received, they shall throw her into the water." A Greek city-state of Eleutherna passed a law against drunkenness in the 6th century BCE, although exceptions were made for religious rituals.

In the early 20th century, much of the impetus for the prohibition movement in the Nordic countries and North America came from moralistic convictions of pietistic Protestants. Prohibition movements in the West coincided with the advent of women's suffrage, with newly empowered women as part of the political process strongly supporting policies that curbed alcohol consumption.

The first half of the 20th century saw periods of prohibition of alcoholic beverages in several countries:

1918 to 1920: Prohibition in Canada nationally, as well as in most provinces including:

1901 to 1948 in Prince Edward Island

1919 to 1919 in Quebec

1907 to 1992 in the Faroe Islands; limited private imports from Denmark were allowed from 1928

1914 to 1925: Prohibition in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

1915 to 1935: Prohibition in Iceland (wine legal from 1922, but beer still prohibited until 1989)

1916 to 1927 in Norway (fortified wine and beer were also prohibited from 1917 to 1923)

1919 in the Hungarian Soviet Republic, March 21 to August 1; called szesztilalom

1919 to 1932 in Finland (called kieltolaki, 'ban law')

1920 to 1933: Prohibition in the United States

After several years, prohibition failed in North America and elsewhere. Rum-running or bootlegging became widespread, and organized crime took control of the distribution of alcohol. Distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or illegally exported to the United States. Detroit and Chicago became notorious as havens for prohibition dodgers during the time known as the Roaring Twenties – 75% of all alcohol smuggled into the United States crossed the Detroit–Windsor border.