One of the major reasons Prohibition did not end up working was that it was not strictly enforced. According to most of the United States people, the Prohibition laws were laws that they were willing to break because they believed they were “arbitrary and unnecessary”. Since the majority of the people saw these laws as arbitrary and unnecessary the enforcement agents ended up being overwhelmed by the amount of wide-scale distribution that was still happening. The 18th amendment  enforcement also lacked a centralized authority, which allowed many prosecutions to be ineffective due to the lack of transparency between federal and state authorities. The biggest reason that prohibition did not work was how it affected the economy. Prohibition created a black market that competed with the U.S economy. When the Great Depression came around in 1929 the government desperately needed the tax money from the sales of legal alcohol. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 mainly due to his claim to end Prohibition.On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Volstead Act, known as the Cullen–Harrison Act, allowing the manufacture and sale of 3.2 beer “(3.2 percent alcohol by weight, approximately 4 percent alcohol by volume)” and light wines. The Volstead Act previously stated that any drink with greater than 0.5 percent alcohol was considered an intoxicating beverage and was not allowed.. After  Cullen–Harrison Act, Roosevelt made one of his most famous quotes, "I think this would be a good time for a beer”. On December 5th 1933, the 21st amendment was passed which basically repealed the 18th amendment, making the manufacturing and distributing of alcohol once again legal and ending Prohibition.

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