Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States focused on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages; however, exceptions were made for medicinal and religious uses. Alcohol consumption was never illegal under federal law. Nationwide Prohibition did not begin in the United States until January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The 18th amendment was ratified in 1919, and was repealed in December 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment.
Joseph Lonardo
Prohibition began in Ohio on May 27, 1919, and nationally throughout the United States on January 16, 1920. Once stockpiles of alcohol were consumed, the brewing of beer and distillation of liquor at home increased exponentially in Prohibition's the first few years. Although the smuggling of liquor into the country was also common, it became more so than home brewing and distillation only after 1923.