I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Prohibition ended up having many unexpected consequences throughout the United States.

There was the obvious, the loss of alcohol sales and the dire situations for restaurants

to stay afloat without a good third of their revenue stream. But aside from the obvious,

prohibition ended up increasing alcohol consumption rather than eliminating it.

As prohibition neared, liquor stores encouraged people to stock up for the rest of your life.

But home brew and consuming your handmade alcohol in the privacy of your home remained legal. So many people

started making their own beer, wine, and spirits. The quality base level of

alcoholic products plummeted and especially in the case of spirits, it became a public health concern

with inexperienced distillers leaving in the heads and tails and serving lethal

spirits to unsuspecting drinkers.

The country also lost money.

Many states found themselves at a loss without the taxes on alcoholic products that had

previously funded their governments.

The federal government alone lost billions of dollars in tax revenue and spent hundreds

of millions to enforce prohibition.

The legal system became overwhelmed with prohibition cases.

The jails filled and organized crime infiltrated cities with nightlife potential. And medical whiskey became a thing.

Doctors would prescribe it for all sorts of things.

Can you imagine?

Oh, you have the flu?

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