5 Reasons Why Prostitution Should Always Be Legal

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Prostitution is a contentious subject that tends to get people's emotions in a bit of a muddle. Many are morally against it, while others simply find it revolting. However, there are several practical reasons for why it should always be legal.

1. When prostitution is legal, it can be properly regulated. This means that prostitutes can work in licensed brothels with panic buttons, disease testing, clean living conditions, security, and a community of fellow prostitutes to help and protect them. It makes them less likely to be economically and sexually exploited by violent pimps. It also means the majority of their clients will be sad, lonely men who would never dream of being violent to a woman.

2. However, when prostitution is illegal, all of this goes away. The sad, lonely clients are too afraid to break the law, so many of the clients are abusive. The protection of the brothel is gone, meaning the women have to surreptitiously occupy alley-ways, or live alone so no-one can report them to the police. Most will have pimps who are involved in other criminal enterprises, and any brothels that remain will typically be run by the criminal underground. The end result is prostitutes who're at greater risk of disease, violence, drug addiction, and sexual and economic exploitation.

3. Although a small fraction of prostitutes are trafficked, there are already laws against this. There is no need to outlaw prostitution in order to stop trafficking because traffickers (by definition) will ignore whichever new laws are used to threaten their business. By legalizing and regulating prostitution, there is less of a business opportunity for traffickers (less demand to fill), and trafficking is likely to decrease as a result.

4. Many prostitutes are vulnerable products of their upbringing. They grew up in care homes, or they have drug habits to feed. So should society be exposing them to greater danger by making their work illegal? Or should we be protecting them and giving them help to overcome their problems? By bringing them into licensed brothels, they can be given the support they need from peers, social workers, and health professionals. For those who are against prostitution, this may actually be the best way to get prostitutes to change their ways.

5. Prostitution is a moral issue for some people. However, is it moral for a woman to pretend to like a man to get a piece of jewelry, a free meal, or a free holiday? In this instance, the man is being duped into parting with his money. With prostitution, there is no facade. The man knows the woman is being affectionate because she is being paid to. It's an honest transaction between two people, and a far cry from the dishonest tactics used in the dating game. From a libertarian perspective, prostitution is between two consenting adults who are fully aware of what they're doing and why. There should be no law to stop them from doing it.

5 Reasons Why Drugs Should be Legalized

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Most people in America and Europe are taught to believe that illegal drugs are inherently bad. However, there's little difference between legal and illegal drugs in terms of what they can do to your body. In fact, a majority of health and police professionals agree that legalizing drugs has the potential to reduce crime, expenditure, and the number of people dying from substance abuse. The remainder of this post presents 5 reasons why they hold his view.

1. The war on drugs has been a catastrophic and expensive failure, costing governments around the world 100 billion dollars every year. It's a ridiculous waste of public money. The botched attempt at alcohol prohibition in the 1920's should have shown lawmakers that making a narcotic illegal doesn't prevent people from taking it. Policing has also been extremely ineffective. Even in Afghanistan, where there was a huge US military presence, the opium trade reached record levels. A new strategy to combat drug use is required.

2. As a society, we are free to enact all manner of harm on our bodies and minds. We can eat until we die from heart failure, and smoke until we get lung cancer. People who use drugs are harming their bodies, but that is their right in a free country. Your body is your property. Drug dealers are the real criminals because their objective is to increase the number of people who are abusing their bodies with drugs. So lets get a grip and stop locking up drug users.

3. The most effective way to close down a business is to undercut them and take their customers. The drug-dealing business is no different. Western governments should understand that the only way to end drug use is to control the market. If a government nationalized the drug trade; buying in bulk and selling to users for zero profit, all of the drug dealers in that country would be instantly forced out of business. The drive for new addicts would end.

4. If drugs were legalized, something could be done about the problem. Users would have better access to health and rehabilitation services, and their habits could be moderated better by health professionals. The trendy image associated with drug use could be quashed and re-branded. It would be considered a health problem rather than a fashion choice, making it less attractive to the young and vulnerable.

After a short time, sales could be restricted to those who have a preexisting addiction, meaning no new addicts would be created by the system. The dealers wouldn't be able to fill the gap. Any new addicts they manage to create would be immediately lost to the non-profit prices offered by the government. Eventually, the drugs problem would diminish and die out.

5. If drugs were sold legally at zero profit, most of the crime associated with the problem would go away. There would be fewer muggings and burglaries because users wouldn't have to find money to fund their habit. The crime associated with the drug-dealing enterprise would also vanish, though we could probably expect criminals to move into other vices such as gambling and prostitution.

Legalization is a solution that makes sense to professionals working in the field. Lets start listening to them!