Addiction to drugs of alcohol is not a new social ill. Throughout the 19th century drugs and alcohol were regularly abused with terrible results. The holidays were time of terror in turn of the century America. Working class citizens would drink to excess and often get into violent fights either at the saloon or at home.

Women were behind the temperance movement in the United States and with understandable cause. Domestic violence was common in 19th Century America and excessive drinking was often the cause. The labor class would become so intoxicated that violence began tied to recreation. When not at work men could be found drinking and then fighting.

The behavior was uncalled for but also understandable. Factory labor was monotonous and held little prospect for advancement. Losing themselves in drink was a way for the working class to forget their plight at least for a moment. Rather than attempt to repair an unequal society, church groups focused on the ill that could be identified and potentially banned. By the end of the 19th Century a strong movement to ban the sales of alcohol had emerged. Prohibition emerged as the answer to the problem of drinking to excess. Rather than trust the working man to know when to say went a coalition of female rights groups, religious groups and conservatives pushes through a ban of alcohol in the United States.

The law proved to be effective in reducing alcohol consumption when initially implemented, but the laws became less and less effective as the public realized ways to circumvent the law. Alcohol consumption reached pre-Prohibition levels a few years after the ban. Making alcohol illegal proved to accomplish the empowerment of organized criminals. Despite this lesson from history the federal government continues to fight a war on drugs. History teaches that users will seek out a drug despite the law. Legislating morality has been a dangerous and thankless endeavor.