The Temperance Movement began in the eighteenth century with a moderate view of drinking: seen as a gift of God, alcohol was not considered intrinsically wrong, but easily abused.  By the mid-nineteenth century, Temperance had become more and more associated with total abstinence from alcohol and linked with a fundamental Christian morality.  Organizations such as the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Movement appeared and gained political clout.  Prohibition of alcohol became a rallying cry for general reform.  The states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment on January 16, 1919, and the Volstead Act was signed on October 28, 1919.  Combined, these laws prohibited production, distribution or sale of beverages with an alcoholic content higher than 0.5%.  Enforcement of Prohibition was nearly impossible: organized crime and bootlegging, home production, and doctors' prescriptions for whiskey soared as people became more and more disenchanted with the law.  Ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5th, 1933 ended more than a decade of Prohibition.