Eighteenth Amendment
1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
This was proposed in late 1917 and ratified in January 1919, a mere 394 days after it was proposed. But later this was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933, being the only amendment to have been repealed.
It was a Christian movement led by women behind this prohibition of alcohol ("Prohibition" or "temperance") and the ratification of this amendment. By 1855, 13 of the 31 states already had prohibition. Women declared war ("Women's War") on alcohol once many saloons arose after the Civil War, with much public drunkenness, prostitution and gambling. The Anti-Saloon League (ASL) was established in 1893. It endorsed candidates having a pro-temperance position. In the election of 1916, ASL-endorsed candidates won many congressional elections, and that Congress passed the amendment with majorities far in excess of the required 2/3rds, and sent the amendment to the states.
Though this amendment was later repealed, many religious groups and some American counties and towns continue to ban alcohol. The fastest growing and second-largest religion in the world, Islam, bans alcohol and not even Muslim cab-drivers accept passengers who are carrying alcohol. Alcoholism contributes to over a hundred thousand deaths in the United States each year, from drunk driving to illness to violent crimes.
