Our 21st Amendment, ratified in 1933, is the only one that repeals a previous amendment. The 18th banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. The 21st repealed our 14-year experiment in Prohibition. The wording of the 21st Amendment Section 1 simply states “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.” Furthermore, it is the only Amendment that was ratified, not by state legislatures, but by state ratifying conventions as allowed in Article V of the Constitution. Apparently, the temperance organization was still a powerful force at the state level and politicians didn’t want to deal with the lobby’s ire so separate delegates represented each state’s ratifying convention.
Section 2 of the 21st is a little more obtuse “The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.” This has generally been interpreted over the years to give states the broad authority to regulate alcohol beverages. Many states in turn have delegated authority to counties and localities.
The reasons for the ending of Prohibition were a little more complicated than expected. Yes, people were thirsty, but not really. Alcohol, while initially restricted in the early years, had become widely available anyway in the black market and at prices that ordinary people could afford. “Grape bricks” were a solid chunk of dehydrated grapes and pulp commonly sold for a couple of dollars with a warning on the box that if it were left in water for too long it could ferment into wine. (Does this explain why Americans are notorious for ignoring instructions and warnings on products?) Additionally, Prohibition had turned out to be a growth industry for organized crime. Furthermore, the inability or unwillingness of law enforcement to halt illegal liquor was painfully obvious to all. Given the failures of temperance, the disrespect of law, and organized crime, the support for repealing the 18th grew over time as it came to be viewed as a noble, but failed, experiment.
The parallels of our 14-year prohibition with our fifty-plus year war on drugs is worth acknowledging. For reasons that I do not begin to understand, the United States leads the world in the consumption of illicit drugs. Our insatiable appetite has flooded the coffers of transnational crime organizations with unimaginable amounts of money. This money has created powerful drug cartels that have destabilized countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and most recently Ecuador. Ironically, these country’s cartels smuggle in drugs, then buy our guns and smuggle them out. Reportedly 70% of the guns confiscated from gangs in Mexico were bought here in the United States. The more unstable the country, the more people flee to our southern border. This is a feedback loop whether we choose to acknowledge or not. In August 2021, Mexico had had enough and filed a $10 billion lawsuit back against US gun manufacturers for facilitating the trafficking the flood of weapons across the US-Mexico border to drug cartels. The suit was initially dismissed in October, but the US District Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal in January, so the litigation moves forward.
Ironically, the three deadliest drugs in America are legal — tobacco, alcohol, and opioids. Prohibition caused more problems than it solved. Ditto for our War on Drugs. Re-legalizing alcohol in 1933 did get rid of dangerously made bootleg products (which still periodically kills people around the world). Legalizing and standardizing differing drugs, including fentanyl, thus keeping the doses within safe limits would save lives. But truth be told I am uncomfortable with that answer even if it does make sense. Regarding guns, I would like to run another noble experiment for just one year. Given our nation’s obsession with originalism, I would like to outlaw the sale and use of all modern guns for that year. Every
gun owner would only be allowed to use flintlocks, the weapons of our Founders. I will bet at the end of that year; we would be pleasantly surprised by the benefits.
