I never thought I would agree 100% with anything the London Free Press says in their editorials, but their support for the decriminalization of prostitution in the light of the current legal challenge is more on the money than I've ever expected from the paper.

It is the world's oldest profession for a reason and even British Empire in the Victorian era had a booming business despite the notorious prudery of the era.  Like the whole pointless drug wars, especially against marijuana, the only benefits would appear to be politicians going for the easy political score and the law enforcement and corrections personnel who have secure livelihoods keeping this sisyphean struggle going.  After all, the US alcohol prohibition of the 1920s and 30s achieved little than to enrich gangsters like Al Capone and the bootlegging trade was largely killed off when it was lifted.

So, it seems basic common sense that if we cannot stamp it out what appears to be nominally a voluntary action like the sex trade, why not put it out of the open where it can be taxed and regulated. At the same time, I am listening with to a Q interview about a Ukrainian woman crusading against de facto government and business encouraged sex tourism in her country and I know the human trafficking problem as well as the anti-social behaviours, like narcotics and vandalism, reported around prostitution in Canada the laws were in flux in the 1970s. 

Yet, I suspect that kind of behaviour is encouraged when the base activity is stigmatized.  After all, if a person is engaging in some frowned upon activity as it is, they could easy conclude that they might as well transgress in other ways while they are at it. So, if we can bring prostitution into the mainstream and remove the stigma, perhaps we can better encourage and enforce reasonable standards of conduct, much like how the Netherlands appear to have done with managing their vice situations. Yes, I know that there is currently a conservative backlash there against these policies, but that does not mean that that country is not handling the situation better than our own country.

The key problem there is not so much prostitution, but the exploitation of women and the poor where they would have no choice to but to go down these paths for survival. While dealing with that larger problem would be a grander public initiative than Harper and his cronies would ever want to undertake, for both fiscal and ideological reasons, we could still reduce the danger if decriminalization can encourage those labourers to seek help from the authorities without fear of being arrested themselves.


As much as this is a partial solution at best, and I don't partake in it any more than I drink or smoke, it seems that we are not accomplishing any more with this prohibition than what the attempts against alcohol have achieved. So, why not put it out in the open like smoking and regulate and tax it so it might achieve a social good in a roundabout way?


In other words, how about we face reality and make the best of it to curb the worst?