On October 28, 1919, the U.S. Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson’s veto to pass the Volstead Act (officially the National Prohibition Act), establishing the enforcement framework for the Eighteenth Amendment. Known as the Prohibition Amendment, it prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the United States.

The Prohibition Amendment was an unreasonable law. It was foolish to think that the federal government could create a law that would keep people from producing and consuming a product they wanted. Alcohol has been available to humans for 13,000 years. Yet some in government in 1919 and now in 2026 believe that the government’s role is to protect you from yourself.

The Volstead Act and the 18th amendment had the unintended consequences of making criminals out of millions of Americans. The government response was simply Tyranny - a national police state to stop ‘moonshiners’ and those running black market businesses.

The damage to the economy was that many restaurants, saloons and businesses related to producing beer and whiskey went away. So did those jobs.

Mark Thornton of the Cato Institute explains: “National prohibition of alcohol (1920–33) — the “noble experiment” — was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure. The lessons of Prohibition remain important today. They apply not only to the debate over the war on drugs but also to the mounting efforts to drastically reduce access to alcohol and tobacco.”

Banning supply does not eliminate demand. When regular markets are banned or regulated, then black markets popup to fill that demand. The result is often higher prices and a rise in organized crime to protect the black market supply chain. When the government outlawed alcohol, it did not eliminate the public’s desire for it; it merely shifted that demand to alternative markets.

Violence replaced competition. Cartels and bootleggers like Al Capone could not sue competitors for breach of contract or trademark infringement. Instead, they used violence to protect their territories and supply chains, turning an economic market into a bloody battleground.

The Encroachment on Liberty. Free-market philosophy relies on the premise that individuals own their bodies and have the right to choose what they consume. The Volstead Act was an exercise in state paternalism, assuming bureaucrats knew better than citizens.

The Volstead act became an expansion of police power. To enforce the unpopular and widely disobeyed law, the federal government had to drastically expand its surveillance and enforcement apparatus in the 1920s. This set a dangerous precedent for future government overreach and the erosion of civil liberties. That expansion grew exponentially with the patriot act in 2001 and today with Flock cameras and cars that spy on the owners for insurance companies and governments at all levels.

The Volstead Act ultimately failed to prevent the large-scale production, importation, and sale of liquor in the United States. The Volstead Act & the 18th amendment were repealed on December 5, 1933, when the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

The proper role of government is to protect your rights and liberty, not to be your nanny.