Negative and Positive Effects of Prohibition in Canada

During the years of 1918-1920 Canada had a brief moment of prohibition. During this period in time drinking alcohol was considered illegal. As a result many negative and positive side effects had taken place in the country. Although the ban of alcohol may have been able to do great good on Canada, the people’s reaction to it completely flipped it around. Although it may have been overall a disastrous idea; Canada still managed to benefit from prohibition just like the United States (maybe even more). Although our Country may have benefitted greatly from the illegalization of alcohol, Canada still became a lot darker.

Organized crime and bootlegging became a lot bigger since people wanted to keep drinking regardless of what the law said. Thanks to this many police became overburdened and stressed out since they had to keep going out of their way to arrest these people going against the law. It does not end there though; many people also lost their jobs since alcohol became illegal and had to resort to crime. It still gets worse. Alcohol was sold in the same manner as many illegal drugs such as Cocaine, LSD, Meth, etc.

Because of this the people buying didn’t know if the drinks they got were reliable / safe to drink (most of them weren’t). Because alcohol was made illegal, the people who were poisoned by these drinks weren’t able to report them so they can get treated (treatment also happens to be very expensive). Now the root of all these problems is the fact that many people happen to have drinking problems. Unfortunately for these people the treatment of these drinking problems were also prevented so they couldn’t fix their problems that may result in their deaths later on thanks to the unreliability of the alcohol they buy.

Thanks to prohibition the law enforcement, the court systems, and politics became permanently corrupted. Because organized crime became so powerful, they were able to bribe, blackmail, or even murder anyone who tried to stop them. They were even able to get one of their men into a high position of power by cheating in elections. Now you may be wondering what would be one of the causes for something this horrible. If you must know it is religion. Thanks to what the religious jerks kept preaching, many people couldn’t find a job and had to resort to crime to support their families.

They couldn’t find a job because the influential groups kept telling others that they were coming from the “devil’s work”. Many religious figures preached that if alcohol would be made illegal then god would “bless” America and usher in a great paradise. Ironically the exact opposite happened. Because of these false promises that ushered in far more harm than good, many people lost their respect towards religion and stopped listening to what they preached… Wait why this is listed on under a negative effect of prohibition, that has got to be one of the greatest things that have ever happened in North American history.

Long story short, prohibition was just one failure after another Although many negative impacts came out of prohibition; it wasn’t exactly an all-out failure. Canada still benefitted in many positive ways through prohibition. Although many people resorted to crimes and felony, other people decided to make themselves useful and help benefit society by finding another job. It also ended the great sausage parties (this means women were finally allowed to join in on parties and other places such as bars, clubs, etc).

Unfortunately that is just about it for the non-alcohol related positive effects of prohibition. Some people were very stubborn and still wanted to keep doing what they did before even with prohibition taking place. So instead of resorting to crime or finding another job they decided to travel to a different country and continue what they were doing before without a care in the world. Thanks to these people, many drinks exclusive to only North America were shared with other countries and their drinks were shared with North America when the Bartenders came back after prohibition.

In a way these people helped unify many Countries and help build a healthy relationship between them. Also during prohibition car racing became famous since many people had to upgrade their cars to evade the police as they went about selling illegal narcotics. Not many people know how this evolved into the great sport of car racing but it just did. Prohibition although disastrous and unpredictable did do North America one great favor. Because of all the failures and disasters caused by prohibition many people lost respect towards the religions that enforced prohibition.

Thanks to that the people of North America were able to become more self-aware and not act as some mindless puppet of their religion. Unfortunately although Canada may have experienced numerous positive impacts thanks to prohibition; it was still not enough to remove the amount of negative (and beautifully positive) impacts that continued to plague the country even after it was removed for good. Law enforcement, the court system, and politics became permanently corrupted and have remained corrupted even to this day.

Many people were financially, emotionally, and morally broken and suffered greatly during the twenties and thirties. Due to a great many people losing their jobs because of Prohibition they had to either find lower paying jobs, or become criminals. This really tore people apart. It also permanently created and maintained an uncanny amount of disrespect for the law. The reason for this is because everyone broke the law of prohibition, which technically made them criminals. Prohibition made people view the law as something stupid and unimportant instead of what it was meant to do (good and protecting).

Prohibition did nothing to encourage respect and obedience towards the law, it did the opposite. Although the illegalization of alcohol can indeed benefit society greatly, it cannot be done because of the huge role alcohol plays in society nowadays. In Conclusion, prohibition resulted in many positive and negative effects to take place in Canada. Although the ban of alcohol may have been able to do great good on Canada, the people’s reaction to it completely flipped it around. Although it may have been overall a disastrous idea; Canada still managed to benefit greatly from prohibition.

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Negative and Positive Effects of Prohibition in Canada. (2016, Aug 22). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/negative-and-positive-effects-of-prohibition-in-canada/

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