BeerBorg

Today is the 80th anniversary of Repeal Day, when America finally lifted its disastrous, 13-year experiment with alcohol prohibition. Here are a few facts about booze and Prohibition you may not have known:

— Though Prohibition led to a spike in homicides, widespread corruption, alcohol poisonings, and undermined respect for the rule of law, its repeal wasn’t motivated by any of those things. Rather, lawmakers came around because during the Depression, cash-strapped states needed money, and legalizing and taxing alcohol was a promising source of revenue. There are lessons here, and the drug war reform movement has learned them well.