Sex and Drugs

Ever wonder why we have some of the laws that we have? Ever wonder why other countries don’t have the crime rate we have? What if someone said if sex and drugs were legal there would be a drop in the crime rate, would you believe them?

Let’s examine this a little closer to find some truths and debunk some of the biggest myths created around the laws that outlaw human behavior.

First off drugs and sex, (in this conversation I will use sex for prostitution) have been around since the beginning of recorded history. In ancient times tribes used opiates and other mind altering drugs to seek out visions. The use of alcohol has been around just about as long, Romans, Egyptians and other cultures regularly drank wine and forms of distilled liquids.

When it comes to sex, it equally applies to all cultures. Even the bible talked of prostitutes, Romans kept women to service the royalty and mid-east cultures had harems. Sex before the rise of the Catholic Church was seen as no different as any other profession.

In the modern day, other cultures outside of the United States often allow children to drink wine with meals, and no one thinks anything of it. Some of these other countries have legalized the use of drugs and have opened clinics for the addicted. They allow vendors to operate smoke shops, much like the coffee shops we have here. The difference is, people here are trying to get a caffeine buzz, the others, and well it is a different buzz. The smoke shops, pay taxes and the people who go there are not looked at like leopards. A lot of people in America don’t see the correlation between legalized alcohol and legalized marijuana use. It’s conditioning. For so long, drugs have been demonized and alcohol has been glorified that it’s hard to have a reasonable conversation with these people. You see advertisements on T.V. and billboards all the time relating alcohol with having a good time. What if you saw one of those same advertisement, replace Budweiser with Gold Bud, would there be any difference. No, not in the fact that they are both mind altering substances.

Now, where do the politics and laws play into this equation? We have to go back in time a little to get a perspective on this. We will start with the religious right and their desires to dictate morality to everyone. In the start of the prohibition era, the religious right was the main driving force to enact the 18^th amendment to outlaw alcohol. Lead notably by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, notice the word Christian in the name; it was basically a Holy war against the alcohol industry in this country. The same zealots that lead the fight to outlaw the sale and distribution of alcohol are of akin to the same people who lead the drug wars. The same arguments are made today of marijuana, that were made prior to prohibition. These are the same people who also keep the laws against prostitution. Why would do they it, other than thru moral objections.

The one argument that they always fall back on is public health concerns and the decay or morality in the United States. They contend that if drugs and sex were legal, the street would be full of drug addicts and prostitutions would spread disease rampantly. The moral decay of society would increase and America would no longer be the moral leader of the world. In truth, this is their sole reason for the archaic drug and prostitution laws. It’s more about control of human behavior than any health risk associated with the use of either. They would be more content to have everyone behave as they see fit, other than to let people use their own judgment as what is right for themselves.

As facts have proven over the past centuries, you can’t control people’s free will. People will continue to use drugs for recreational purposes, just as people use alcohol. The war on drugs has been going on for nearly forty years in this country and as of today, the only thing that it has accomplished is to spend billions of dollars of tax payer’s money to chase a victimless crime. If you decide that you want to partake in drug use, it hurts no one but you. They may say that’s not true, if effects your family and others around you, but I see it no different than the alcoholic using that same logic. Alcoholics receive treatment for their dependency on alcohol, these same treatment centers could be used to treat drug addicts as well. So really their argument doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. As far as prostitution goes, the brothels in Las Vegas are regulated and girls are tested regularly. If not for the laws against it in other states the same testing procedures could be done, lowering the risk of spreading STD’s. But, as long it is done underground, there is no viable way to control the spread of disease among the women or men in this profession.

I listen to pundits on the right make their arguments, people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh fight on the side of the war on drugs, all the while admitting to drinking alcohol, Limbaugh has his battle with drug abuse. They will continue to pursue their moral crusade while speaking out both sides of their mouths. They berate the liberal left and politicians who are banning smoking cigarettes, or taxing it enough to double the price of each pack, all the while fighting against the legalization of other things. It’s appears to be ok with them if people smoke cigarettes, which is shown to be one of the most addictive things a person can do, and drink alcohol solely because they are legal.

People are starting wake up it seems. Today more and more people are beginning to realize the war on drugs is never going to be won. The only way to control use in the United State is to make it legal and tax it. Prostitution will surely not be far behind, fore it is another victimless crime, and it boils down to a transaction made by willing participants. It really is no different than hiring someone for anything else; I will pay you this amount, if you do this.

As long as the Republican Party allows the religious zealots to control its party, it will fight tooth and nail against any type of drug and sex law reform. This will ensure that the liberal left will always have representatives in the house and the senate. As long as people see Republicans as the party that believes that it has a right to control you on the ground of moral superiority, there will be people that will refuse to be lead by them on that fact alone.Other than a few Midwestern cities like Vegas and Reno, where prostitution is legal, the US still carries penalties for sex between consenting adults if money is involved.

It has long been said, “It would be easier to overthrow a communist government than that of a Theocracy.” Communist consider themselves as a ruler of men, Theocracies believe they rule from divine wisdom, sent from God. All you have to do to see this in action is look at the Taliban in the Middle East, how well is that working out? Want to live under that law?

In closing until the far right lets it’s strangle hold on the politicians of the Republican party, the fight to make drugs and sex legal will continue for years to come. When they finally wake up and realize that it’s futile effort, it may be too late; the Democrats and Libertarians will keep and gain more power going forward. The only thing at this point that keeps the Republican Party even viable is the conservative stance on government spending. Other than that, most people have very little trust in the party to do anything right. Politicians are Politicians and will do anything for power, right or left, until they realize that controlling from a moral authority is left to God, and not them, the struggle will continue