I was just listening to a lecture by Al walaki the other day, and he spoke of how the prohibition didn't happen all of a sudden that a love of God and a desire to please him has to be established first in the hearts of the believers, and he contrasted that with the prohibition in the U.S which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and sent many to prisons and then the ban was lifted anyway because it couldn't be upheld..
however when the prohibition was revealed in the Quran, it was said that Anas ibn maalik who was a bartender dropped the bottle and the sahaba refused to drink, and the streets of medina were red as if filled with blood, but it was all the wine voluntairly dumped into the streets by Muslims..
sobhan Allah..
I recommend that folks here, listen to his entire series-- everything makes so much sense when you have a scholar going over it with you..
and Allah swt knows best