# When Prohibition Ended, What Became of the Enforcement Industry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2005, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502 "2005-02-17T09:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/21 "2005-02-20T21:30:09Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Prohibition wasn’t “insane.” It did a lot of what it was supposed to do. It cut back on drunken driving, on drink-induced assaults and spousal abuse, and on health issues connected to alcohol. There are many good books available today analyzing Prohibition from a sufficient distance to be objective about it. Could you list a few of these? I’d like to take a look at them. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/22 "2005-02-21T04:14:49Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Actually, alcohol consumption pretty routinely goes up during times of economic depression, not down (ask Russians about that). And immigration laws pretty much cut immigration to the U.S. down to a trickle after 1924. > > Try again. I should think there are cultural differences bewteen the US and Russia. In any event, [this chart](http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/07/alcohol_consump.html) depicts 11 European countries with better economies than Russia outconsuming our Russian friends in liters/capita in alcohol consumption, 2002. Any citations of American alcohol consumption corrolated to economic downturns? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/23 "2005-02-21T13:22:10Z")
I have a feeling that marijuana will never be legalized in the USA, because the DEA stands to lose so much from it. Really, the idea that people go insane, wreck their lives , etc., because they smoke pot is just so silly. What will the DEA dowhen synthetic versions of heroin, cocaine, etc., are made everywhere? One last thing: who did Elliott Ness work for? Was it ATF or the FBI?And, did he really make a lot of liquor busts? ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/24 "2005-02-21T14:40:59Z")
Those drugs are already quite plentiful. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/25 "2005-02-21T17:06:34Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I have a feeling that marijuana will never be legalized in the USA, because the DEA stands to lose so much from it. It’s not up to the Drug Enforcement Agency, nor is the DEA allowed to lobby Congress about it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/26 "2005-02-21T17:24:05Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > One last thing: who did Elliott Ness work for? Was it ATF or the FBI?And, did he really make a lot of liquor busts? [Eliot Ness](http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/ness/1.html?sect=18) worked for the Treasury Department’s Prohibition Bureau in Chicago for seven years before becoming Cleveland’s Director of Public Safety (i.e., police commissioner). ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/27 "2005-02-21T17:24:10Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase I can’t imagine any argument that would make these times a golden age for urbanism in the U.S. Again, be my guest.[/QUOTE] I don’t know that I buy his entire argument, but Dr. Richard Florida has been making a bit of a name for himself in the planning field by claiming that we’re on the cusp of a new urbanist age. His thesis is that cities have traditionally been where the cultural forces are centered (art, theater, museums, universities of any note, the general “cultural elite”) and that these are the fields that make up modern civilization worth a damn. Many inner-cities are making something of a comeback as people realize how soul-less the suburbs are, and have lively and stimulating living downtown can be. Here in Richmond, for instance, a new cultural arts center is going up, there are dozens of urban revitalization projects that are getting residences constructed in the inner-city again (albeit, units for upwardly mobile professionals with no children, or baby-boomers who don’t want a house in the burbs now that the kids are gone), and, in general, downtown is the place to be. Dan Savage, the author of the Savage Love newspaper column, said it pretty well: “We [he was speaking of not only the movers and shakers of the country, but the gay population as well] have San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, Washington, DC, New York, and Boston. Everyone else can have all the crap that’s left over.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502/28 "2005-02-21T19:54:39Z")
> [@plnnr](#): > > [QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase > I can’t imagine any argument that would make these times a golden age for urbanism in the U.S. Again, be my guest.[/QUOTE] > > I don’t know that I buy his entire argument, but Dr. Richard Florida has been making a bit of a name for himself in the planning field by claiming that we’re on the cusp of a new urbanist age. His thesis is that cities have traditionally been where the cultural forces are centered (art, theater, museums, universities of any note, the general “cultural elite”) and that these are the fields that make up modern civilization worth a damn. I agree with this. In LA I’m noticing a a couple of things that seem to foretell a time of more concentrated development and a more urban concept of living. In my West L.A. neighborhood, whenever an old apartment house gets torn down, the building that replaces it is taller and houses more people. I like to see it because it helps support an entertaining variety of local businesses, from bookstores to coffeehouses to restaurants to art supply shops. The other thing I notice is that some of our mayoral candidates are talking seriously about expanding the rapid transit system; I think seven years ago it would have been political death to talk about extending the Red Line subway to the beach. But that’s what one of our front running candidates advocates doing now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-prohibition-ended-what-became-of-the-enforcement-industry/290502.md?page=1)