Prohibition was a nationwide ban on alcohol that took place from 1920-1933. The ban was an attempt to improve the nation by getting rid of alcohol, but it failed miserably. Instead of stopping the drinking of alcohol, prohibition only increased it; and had many other negative effects on the nation. One of the effects of prohibition on the U.S. is that it caused a major loss of respect for the law and government. Alcohol never caused any direct harm to people, and a massive amount of the nation's population drank it, so it outraged many people that the government would do something so unreasonable. Because of prohibition, many people became criminals for merely drinking an alcoholic beverage.
Prohibition also caused many people who didn't wish to be put in jail to resort to smoking cigarettes, which ironically, was even worse than drinking alcohol.
However, alcohol was still legal as a form of medicine, so many bootleggers, or people who smuggled alcohol illegally, worked as pharmacists.
Bootleggers also created establishments called speakeasies which were essentially secret saloons where people could purchase alcohol.
"Rum-Running" was the aquatic variant of bootlegging, and many ships were raided for illegal alcohol.
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