Unlike Islamic and some other states, the drinking of alcohol itself is not illegal in the US and probably never will be. Prohibiting the management of alcohol in some ways, but not all, was always unlikely to rid a country of the evils of drinking to excess. Mediterreanean countries are freer with alcohol but it is unusual for their city centres to be spoiled in the evenings by drunken behaviour as it is in many British towns on a Friday and Saturday night and in the US.
If alcohol is banned, then it will come in on the black market, as has happened with hard drugs. The selling of drugs is illegal, therefore those who do so are criminal and the practice attracts criminality. The same would be true if alcohol was banned. Limiting its movement only served to increase criminal activity around alcohol, such as drinking and driving, which causes accident to the innocent.
The prohibition failed because the demand for alcohol was just too much to bear for a lot of people. They started acquiring illegal beverages and people started to live lives that are built on lies and deceit. It also did not help that there were some issues with the economy in general. There were thousands of people who lost their jobs because they were working for breweries.
The economy was in turmoil and things are just not working out. Some even say that the crime rates during the prohibition far exceeds the crime rates before prohibition started. There were no gains from the prohibition at that time and this prompted the government to lift the prohibition.
