Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage, 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.
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of states on January 16, 1919. The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933. It is the only amendment to be repealed.
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emphasize alcohol's negative effects on people's health, personalities and family lives. Typically the movement promotes alcohol education and it also demands the passage of new laws against the sale of alcohol, either regulations on the availability of alcohol, or the complete prohibition of it. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the temperance movement became prominent in many countries, particularly in English-speaking, Scandinavian, and majority Protestant ones, and it eventually led to national prohibitions in Canada, Norway, Finland, and the United States, as well as provincial prohibition in India. A number of temperance organizations exist that promote temperance and teetotalism as a virtue.
National referendums are seldom used in Canada. The first two referendums in 1898 and 1942 saw voters in Quebec and the remainder of Canada take dramatically-opposing stands, and the third in 1992 saw most of the voters take a stand dramatically opposed to that of the politicians in power.
The Temperance (Scotland) Act 1913 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom under which voters in small local areas in Scotland were enabled to hold a poll to vote on whether their area remained "wet" or went "dry". The decision was made on a simple majority of votes cast.
Sir William Howard Hearst, was the seventh premier of Ontario from 1914 to 1919.
The 1957 Alberta liquor plebiscite was a province-wide plebiscite conducted in Alberta, Canada The plebiscite asked voters if they were in favour of adding extra ALCB outlets in their district. It was held on October 30, 1957. At the time, the Alberta Liquor Control Board operated only a few stores from which liquor could be legally purchased.
Augustus Owsley Stanley I was an American politician from Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 38th governor of Kentucky and also represented the state in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. From 1903 to 1915, Stanley represented Kentucky's 2nd congressional district in the House of Representatives, where he gained a reputation as a progressive reformer. Beginning in 1904, he called for an antitrust investigation of the American Tobacco Company, claiming they were a monopsony that drove down prices for the tobacco farmers of his district. As a result of his investigation, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the breakup of the American Tobacco Company in 1911. Stanley also chaired a committee that conducted an antitrust investigation of U.S. Steel, which brought him national acclaim. Many of his ideas were incorporated into the Clayton Antitrust Act.
Prohibition in Canada was a ban on alcoholic beverages that arose in various stages, from local municipal bans in the late 19th century, to provincial bans in the early 20th century, and national prohibition from 1918 to 1920. The relatively large and powerful beer and alcohol manufacturing sector, and the huge working class that purchased their products, failed to convince any of the governments to reverse their stance on prohibition. Most provinces repealed their bans in the 1920s, though alcohol was illegal in Prince Edward Island from 1901 to 1948. By comparison, Ontario's temperance act was in effect from 1916 to 1927.
Prohibition in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union existed during 1914–25. The Russian term is "сухой закон".
An Ontario prohibition referendum was held on December 4, 1902, under the Liquor Act, on the legality of alcoholic beverages and the implementation of prohibition in the province. Though the referendum passed, a majority of half of the voters in the 1898 election did not support the motion and prohibition was not introduced.
An Ontario prohibition referendum was held on October 23, 1924 on the repeal of the Ontario Temperance Act. The referendum was brought about by a clause in the Act, which permitted the possible repeal of prohibition by a majority vote. The referendum upheld prohibition, albeit by the narrowest majority of all of Ontario's prohibition referendums; in 1927, prohibition would be repealed with the passing of the Liquor Licence Act.
The Quebec referendum on the prohibition of alcohol, held on April 10, 1919, considered the legalization of the sale of beer, cider and wine in the province of Quebec, Canada. The 'yes' side won with 78.62% of the votes.
In the United States, prohibition was a nationwide constitutional law that strictly prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.
Prohibition in Iceland went into effect in 1915 and lasted, to some extent, until 1 March 1989. The ban had originally prohibited all alcohol, but from 1922 legalized wine and in 1935 legalized all alcoholic beverages except beer with more than 2.25% alcohol content. As in many other states with prohibition, "illegal brewing and smuggling of alcoholic beverages were widespread during the ban."
The 1915 Alberta liquor plebiscite was the first plebiscite to ask voters in Alberta whether the province should implement prohibition by ratifying the proposed Liquor Act. The plebiscite was the culmination of years of lobbying by the province's temperance movements and agricultural groups, and was proposed through the recently implemented form of direct democracy, the Direct Legislation Act. Alberta voters approved the plebiscite on prohibition, which was implemented eleven months after the vote. The June 21, 1915 plebiscite was the first of three province-wide plebiscites held in a seven year period related to liquor in Alberta.
A plebiscite on prohibition was held in Canada on 29 September 1898, the first national referendum in the country's history. The Liberal government had made an election promise in 1896 to provide an opportunity for Canadians to register their opinions about the sale of alcohol. The non-binding plebiscite saw 51.3% in favour of introducing prohibition, although turnout was only 44%. A majority voted for its introduction in all provinces except Quebec, where 81.2% opposed it.
The temperance movement in New Zealand originated as a social movement in the late-19th century. In general, the temperance movement aims at curbing the consumption of alcohol. Although it met with local success, it narrowly failed to impose national prohibition on a number of occasions in the early-20th century. Temperance organisations remain active in New Zealand today.
BC Liquor Stores are a chain of crown corporation retail outlets operated by the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch to distribute alcoholic beverages in the province of British Columbia, Canada. They are accountable to the Attorney General of British Columbia. BC Liquor Stores currently operate 196 locations across the province. The chain was established in June 1921, following the result of a plebiscite in favour of liquor availability through government liquor stores. Prior to the plebiscite, alcohol had been illegal through the Prohibition Act, introduced on May 23, 1916, with exceptions for sacramental, medicinal or industrial purposes.
Medicinal Liquor Prescriptions Act of 1933 is a United States federal statute establishing prescription limitations for physicians possessing a permit to dispense medicinal liquor. The public law seek to abolish the use of the medicinal liquor prescription form introducing medicinal liquor revenue stamps as a substitution for official prescription blanks.
