For thirteen years (1920-1933), the United States experimented with legal prohibition of alcohol on a nationwide basis�an era now commonly referred to as “Prohibition.” This was done through passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which stated, “After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.” It added, “The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” That “appropriate legislation” was the Volstead Act. Both the act and the amendment were largely drafted by Wayne Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League, a national organization working for legal Prohibition.