Prohibition: multiple states follow Maryland's lead

Funding for enforcement of prohibition was ill-defined, and was supposed to come in part from the individual states. Maryland was the extreme case, voting exactly zero over the course of the life of the 18th amendment for enforcement.

I'd guess that were that to happen in other states, we're talking about mostly the northeast, the industrial midwest, and the west coast states. On the other hand, I'd guess the Bible Belt / Old Confederacy would vote considerable funding for enforcement.

So what do we have with areas of the country with essentially a zero budget for enforcement of what is supposedly a federal law? Do we then have sizable regions where prohibition is on the books but unenforced / unenforceable, and others where it's enforced vigorously?
 
Funding for enforcement of prohibition was ill-defined, and was supposed to come in part from the individual states. Maryland was the extreme case, voting exactly zero over the course of the life of the 18th amendment for enforcement.

I'd guess that were that to happen in other states, we're talking about mostly the northeast, the industrial midwest, and the west coast states. On the other hand, I'd guess the Bible Belt / Old Confederacy would vote considerable funding for enforcement.

So what do we have with areas of the country with essentially a zero budget for enforcement of what is supposedly a federal law? Do we then have sizable regions where prohibition is on the books but unenforced / unenforceable, and others where it's enforced vigorously?

Is this a DBWI? After a few years, Maryland was hardly alone in refusing to enforce Prohibition. New York repealed its prohibition enforcement law in 1923--Governor Smith signed the repeal despite Franklin D. Roosevelt's warning that this would hurt the Democrats upstate. Smith said that he was not nullifying Prohibition, just shifting responsibility for its enforcement to the federal government, "where it rightfully belongs." https://books.google.com/books?id=GyQqk-hxaO4C&pg=PA94 "In 1929, voters repealed Wisconsin's prohibition enforcement law, the Severson Act." http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-051/?action=more_essay Illinois repealed its Prohibition Act in 1930 (a rather superfluous gesture--under Mayor Big Bill Thompson Chicago wasn't even pretending to enforce Prohibition...) http://ballotpedia.org/Illinois_Prohibition_Act_Repeal_Question_(1930) Montana in 1928 rejected state enforcement of the Volstead Act by 54-46. http://ballotpedia.org/Montana_Adopt_the_Federal_Prohibition_Laws,_I-32_(1928) (On the same day, Montanans voted decisively for Hoover over Smith--good evidence that the national election was *not* a referendum on Prohibition.) Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly to repeal state Prohibition enforceent in 1930. http://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Repeal_of_Alcohol_Prohibition,_Question_2_(1930)

Basically, what happened in the states where state enforcement was repealed is that enforcement was transformed from a hopeless state-federal joint responsibility to a hopeless federal responsibility.
 
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