Why Prohibition Tactics do not Work? A Critical Evaluation of Historic Experience of the United States in Fighting Alcohol and Drugs

The article presents a critical evaluation of historic experience of the United States in the sphere of fighting alcohol and drugs consumption. The author runs a thorough comparative analysis of two most vivid cases of prohibition-based policies in the history of the United States of America: ‘Prohibition’ of 1920 and the ‘War on Drugs’. Both examples evidently demonstrate common traits in their practical implementation, which are mostly tied with the degree of their inefficiency and a number of negative side-effects for the American society. The author argues that implementation of the prohibition-based approach inevitably leads to the increase in the role of police and other related institutions, leading to their militarization and drastically increasing budget spending. Moreover, both cases have not achieved the goals and targets that had been put before them – quite on the contrary, ‘Prohibition’ and the ‘War on drugs’ failed to end the growing consumption of alcohol and drugs, while creating a much less safe environment for the people who were to consume these substances. On top of that in both cases ‘zero-tolerance’ approach only led to the rise of organized crime groups which de-facto received a monopoly on distribution. © 2022 ‘Uchitel’ Publishing House.