Echoes of Prohibition: What Today’s Hemp Ban Reveals About Power and Panic
Echoes of Prohibition: What Today’s Hemp Ban Reveals About Power and Panic
In 1920, the United States banned alcohol — not through a public vote, but through a moral crusade. It was called the “noble experiment.” Thirteen years later, it collapsed under the weight of hypocrisy, lost jobs, organized crime, and an angry public that realized Prohibition had fixed nothing.
Now, a century later, a new kind of prohibition is creeping in through the back door. The federal continuing resolution — the same one meant to reopen the government — contains language that would effectively ban nearly all hemp-derived cannabinoids, including THCA flower, Delta-9 gummies, vapes, and beverages.
If history teaches us anything, it’s that bans born of moral panic rarely end well.
A familiar playbook
The parallels are striking.
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Then, alcohol was cast as the enemy of family values.
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Now, hemp products are framed as a danger to children.
Both narratives use the language of protection while ignoring reality. After six years of widespread hemp use, the data show that these products are overwhelmingly consumed by adults — veterans, seniors, people managing pain or anxiety, or those seeking safer alternatives to alcohol or opioids.
And just like 1920, the moral framing hides an economic motive. The modern hemp market has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry that operates outside the reach of Big Alcohol, Big Cannabis, and pharmaceutical giants. Those same players have spent heavily on lobbying in recent months, pushing Congress to “clarify” hemp law in ways that conveniently eliminate their competition.
A law without a conversation
The irony couldn’t be deeper.
In the 1920s, the debate over alcohol played out for years in churches, newspapers, and Congress before the Volstead Act finally passed.
In 2025, the debate over hemp is being settled in a continuing resolution — a must-pass spending bill that few citizens will ever read.
No hearings. No testimony. No public record of who benefits or who loses.
This is how sweeping policy happens today: not with open debate, but with quiet insertions in the fine print of 1,000-page legislation. That’s how small businesses like ours — and thousands like it — could be erased from the map overnight.
The cost of moral shortcuts
When alcohol was banned, legitimate breweries and distilleries went bankrupt. Crime surged. Tax revenue evaporated. And the government was forced to spend more money enforcing an unenforceable law.
We’re headed for a similar paradox. Banning hemp cannabinoids won’t end their use; it will only drive them underground — into a gray or black market where no one checks IDs, tests products, or pays taxes.
Prohibition doesn’t stop demand. It just removes accountability.
Economic déjà vu
During the first Prohibition, thousands of small businesses disappeared — bars, taverns, and bottlers that sustained local economies. The same is at stake now.
At PhenomWell, nearly every product we sell — THCA flower, Delta-9 gummies, vapes, chocolate, and more — would be illegal under the proposed rule. That’s four jobs lost in one small North Carolina town. Multiply that by the thousands of independent shops, manufacturers, and farms nationwide, and you begin to see the scale of the impact.
In 1933, when Prohibition ended, Franklin D. Roosevelt said the country had “regained its common sense.” Maybe we’ll get there faster this time.
Control versus freedom
The deeper issue isn’t just hemp; it’s power.
Both Prohibition eras show the same dynamic — government and industry joining forces to control human behavior under the guise of morality.
Whether it’s a drink, a gummy, or a puff of flower, the argument isn’t really about safety. It’s about who gets to decide what adults are allowed to consume, and who profits when access is restricted.
Learning from the past
Prohibition ended when Americans saw that regulation, not eradication, was the smarter path.
That lesson is right in front of us again: regulate hemp responsibly.
- Require age limits.
- Enforce lab testing and labeling.
- Punish bad actors.
But don’t destroy an entire industry — one that’s helped veterans, seniors, farmers, and small business owners across the country — just to serve entrenched interests.
A closing note
If the 1920s taught us anything, it’s that fear and money make powerful allies.
But time, truth, and common sense have a way of catching up.
The first Prohibition ended when the country realized that control had gone too far.
The question now is how long it will take us to realize it again.
Related reading:
The Oddest Time To Ban Hemp: While Re-Opening The Government
A breakdown of how the hemp ban was buried in the federal spending bill — and why it threatens small businesses across America.