The Shocking Truth: Money Killed Prohibition!

2022 during the prohibition era, the federal poisoning program killed at least 10,000 people, according to some estimates. Yet the chemists war of prohibition is all but forgotten. 2020 prohibition, which began 100 years ago friday, didn't just put the squeeze on the booze industry. It took a much broader toll on the american economy. Prohibition overburdened the court system, and it cost massive amounts of money to enforce.

The unintended economic consequences of prohibition didn't stop there. One of the most profound effects of prohibition was on government tax revenues. 2019 disenchantment with prohibition had been building almost from the moment it first took effect in 1920. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with. 2019 tim harford considers how much it costs to make something illegal, and what a failed law reveals about the way criminals make their money.