Politics of Prohibition: Helpful or Harmful to American Society?During the duration of this article, I will discuss an issue that has been controversial for over a century; Prohibition and how it affected, has current effects, and will most likely continue to have effects on American society. The aspects I choose to address in this issue are political, historical, astonishing and should influence anyone who reads this article. For decades, the American government has imposed restrictions or bans on drugs and alcohol. Furthermore, for decades, these restrictions have met with resistance from our society. At the beginning of the 20th century, from 1920 to 1933, there was a ban on alcohol. A corrupt era, where so-called "criminals" and legislators produced and sold contraband alcohol. Back then there was high demand and everyone was doing it for the money, everyone. A period that turned out to be a failed attempt by the government to take away what is now one of the main products of the United States. During the 1970s President Richard Nixon began an ongoing "war on drugs" and every president since Nixon has continued this fight to, in some way, rid the entire country of illicit drugs. Today, some states have taken a new approach to one of these drugs and all together are raising eyebrows in the face of the war on drugs. States like California, Washington and Calorado have loosened their crackdown on marijuana prohibition and even have medical marijuana dispensaries. This idea has been shown to boost those economies and allow people with cancer to use a drug that actually gives them comfort. However, marijuana is still illegal. Why would we restrict the nation from something so beneficial… middle of paper… s. Was Capone fully responsible for the violence that plagued his life? Or was he adapting to the times he lived in? Perhaps he was a man who believed in self-defense in a cruel time when he was just as likely to be killed by an opposing smuggler. In several interviews he spoke of peace. He asked for peace from other men who defied him. Some might even call it generous. Whatever Al Capone was, there was a type of person who believed he was truly evil. In Capone's words, "There is one thing worse than a crook, I think... and that is a dishonest man doing important political work. A man who pretends to enforce the law and actually makes money by breaking it. Even a self-respecting criminal doesn't know what to do with people like that... he buys them as he would buy any other article necessary for his job, but in his heart he hates them," (Blumenthal 102).