Prohibition and Constitutional Constraints




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Summary: The 18th Amendment was ratified a century ago, beginning the United States’ fourteen-year experiment with prohibition. An Amendment was needed because the Constitution did not give the federal government the power to ban alcohol. Yet, today, the federal government bans recreational drugs and puts medicinal drugs under the control of the FDA. Either the 18th Amendment wasn’t necessary a century ago, or federal drug controls are unconstitutional today.