How to Fix the Economic Meltdown and Stop Terrorism: Legalize Heroin and Whores

"Prohibition will work great injury... for it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."

If you don't know who said that, I promise I'll tell you later.

Selling sex for money is a multi-billion-dollar business. Apparently tens of millions of people want sex so bad they pay through the nose for it. And in that shadowy, shady, underworld, there are many different kinds of economic transactions. At one extreme are coercion, victimization, and exploitation. At the other are consent, empowerment and economic independence. I personally know many people from either extreme of this Bell curve. But both these exchanges are called prostitution. To say these exchanges are the same things is like saying that working at Bloomingdale's and being forced against your will to work 20 hours a day in a sweatshop are the same thing.

Many people claim that if you make sex for money legal, it will be easier for predators who exploit adults and children alike. Of course, just the opposite is true. We know what happens during Prohibition. Gangsters control the means of production. Al Capone, quintessential American criminal/pop icon, was created by Prohibition. Just as the American Pimp has become the new superstar gangsta, and slithered his way into our culture. Pimp my Ride. Pimp my Crib. Pimp my Wife. It is much easier for predators to hide in an illegal industry. And when you make criminals out of industrial sex technicians, which is what I call people who work of their own free will in the sex business, they have no recourse when things go bad. And things go bad alot in this business. So people all over the Bell curve get raped, robbed, and beaten. Not only by clients. By law enforcement. When one of the recent whores serial killers was caught, he said he killed whores because it was easy, and he knew no one would miss them.

If you take all the money spent on the war on whores, on true industrial sex technicians, and focused it on actually tracking down traffickers and predators, you could take the bastards down. You can find these people if you want to. But there are great economic forces at work in America, and throughout the world, that want desperately to keep things the way they are. Because there's so much money involved.

But the bottom line, economically, is that there is a big beautiful sexy cash cow to be milked here. With a reasonable rate of taxation, people who choose to work in the business could make a very good living wage, get health insurance, and even have a retirement plan, if that's what they choose. It's all about choice. Everyone should have the choice to do what they like as long as they pay their bills and don't hurt anyone. Isn't that the whole idea behind America? And with some of that money, we could help people who want to leave the sex business get the skills necessary to transition. Apply the rest of this cash flow to paying teachers a decent wage, making sure no one goes hungry or homeless. Arts and sports in the schools. Music classes for every kid in America! What a revolutionary idea.

As for heroin, since you're a basketball player, I'll put it in your vernacular. It's a slam dunk. In USA Today recently, right on the front page, in very small words, it said that the Taliban is making its money from buying and selling heroin. If you make it legal, like tobacco and alcohol, and package it nicely, you take away the Taliban's cash flow. And again, you get to control this huge beautiful dopey goose that keeps laying big golden eggs. And why stop at heroin? Consider the hundreds of millions generated by the wacky weed industry. The trade in opium has been brisk for centuries. Hashish. Ecstasy. Speed. 'Shrooms. Cocaine. Acid. Imagine the fun Madison Avenue would have. Orange Sunshine, the LSD with Vitamin C. Willy Weed, the only dope Willie Nelson smokes. Harry Potter's Magic Mushrooms.

It's not drugs that are the problem. Humans have used hallucinogens, intoxicants and in inebriates for as long as anyone cares to remember. Even when they've imbibed so much they can't actually remember. It's people's behavior that's the problem. Every time I've been in a room with people shooting up, they just lay there with silly grins on their faces, and their heads nod up and down like bobble head dolls. It's when they run out of the drugs that the problems begin. If heroin was legal, like cigarettes and alcohol, addicts wouldn't need to rob and pillage. Cigarettes and alcohol kill a lot more people than marijuana and heroin. But we say, go ahead, smoke and drink all you want, booze it up until you're dead, if that's your pleasure. We make money from taxing these products. We control the means of production and distribution. Again, isn't that what America is all about? That we can do what we want as long as we mind your own p's and q's?

Take the money we spend on the war on drugs, and actually go after the Taliban, as well as gangsters in South America and Asia (many of whom are financed by the drug trade) after their money source has been cut off. Instead of declaring war under false pretense and trying to set up our own militia government so we can make millions for military contractors and their cronies, while ensuring that we are more hated every day.

There it is. Economic turbo-boost, predators and traffickers hunted down, Taliban and international gangsters crippled. All with the blessing of Abraham Lincoln. That's who gave that great shout out about prohibition.

Comments

[SinnamonLove]

Excellent article.. As a sex technician, I chose the currently most legal route to ply my trade - the porn industry. However, noticing all the people that involve themselves in the "illegal" sex trade, I often wonder what good can come from embarrassing Johns publicly or making prostitutes spend days in jail just to send a message of what is or is not socially acceptable. While I understand that street walkers often threaten the quality of life in neighborhoods that already need economic help and development, the advent of the internet has changed the sex industry allowing prostitutes to go independent and offer their services to a better quality of clientele and in safer situations.

The idea that in this day and age, the government is still trying to regulate what happens in people's bedrooms and hotels across the country - with consenting adults, is completely absurd. Its not like prohibiting it is going to stop the trade from happening... You are right, legalization would allow women and men involved in the trade to build 401k's, seek medical or legal help, and become more active members of society. Its unfortunate that we still have this battle to fight... but honestly, with anti0sex toy laws just being taken off the books in several Bible belt states in this most recent election... along with new regulations in Arkansas prohibiting gay couples from adopting... would you expect anything less?

[David Henry Sterry - Huffpost Blogger]

thanks for your salient comments. you have a great no-nonsense style. i've just sold an anthology to soft skull press, i'd be interested in you writing something for it.

[aeckstut]

Thank you David Sterry for talking about this issue. We've got to think creatively and common sensically right now or the country is going to head even further south. This is a very thoughtful interesting piece. I really appreciate your putting yourself out there and writing this.

[rpmcmurphyy]

yes, sterry for sex drugs & rocknroll czar! seriously, this is just common sense, when removed from the shackles of the lenses of myopic sex-terrified stupid white men

[millyvvv]

is alcohol worse than heroin? i've done both and i prefer heroin. and again, just cuz someone thinks heroin is bad, doesn't mena that i, as an american, shouldn't have the right to use it f i want.

[PatHanson]

Makes utter and complete sense to me! Send it on to O's advisors!
But seriously, where do we begin to foment this movement?

[loebner]

Well said. I grieve that the US is so puritanical. Unfortunately, it is held in the suffocating clutch of religious fanatics.

[RatStevens]

STERRY in 2012!!!! Excellent!! After Prohibition you would think they would "Get It"! But no. They Started the war on Drugs. My automatic pool cleaner has more sense that to bump into the wall in the same spot twice! Doesn't anybody study history anymore? What's odd is that with Cigarettes they actually got it right! Keep it legal (even though nicotine is a HIGHLY addictive drug) Tax the hell out of it and use that money for public service announcements, health programs, and beneficial propaganda to change society's perception of smoking towards a negative one! Go figure.

[LukeIsBack]

Excellent article. Do you think we can convert Obama to your way of thinking?

[Skuff]

T H Train might not be the best idea for legalization, but Prostitution is safer when legalized, and weed, my god, it's like legalizing vitamins. Should not be a problem.

Gov is looking for revenue streams. Make pot legal then make low cost government doritos!

Great post

[Larry-bob]

We just had our first run at decriminalization of prostitution in San Francisco with Proposition K, which got to 40% yes votes. I think with some fine-tuning and some effort at education and overcoming the arguments made against it, that this could succeed in the future.

As far as drugs, a lot of the profit currently is from cutting pure drugs down, and that if legal, pure drugs were readily available, there would be less incentive for people to deal them.

[Annoe]

Exactly right. If prostitution were legal, it would be much easier to eliminate abuses from the industry -- in part because the victims could be recognized as victims rather than arrested as criminals, everyone else (providers and clients) could work in peace, and the police could focus on violence and exploitation instead of trolling on Craig's List or setting up stings in Vegas hotel rooms.

As for currently illicit drugs, extensive social science research shows that (just like for alcohol), only about 10-20% of users become "abusers" or "addicts" (the percentage varies somewhat depending on the drug). The large, large majority of users use recreationally with little or no risk to themselves or others. The idea that any drug is "instantly addicting" is simply myth. If heroin (in particular) were legal users and addicts would know what dose they were getting, and accidental overdoses -- currently the greatest risk for heroin users because of the variation in purity of illicit sources -- would be greatly reduced.

David, wanna be Obama's drug czar?

[GeorginaSpelvin]

Oh David, David, David. There you go again. Making sense. And doing so with your usual journalistic flair and unique voice. Helllllloooooo - out there. Is anybody LISTENING?

[markkernes]

I've long wondered why some drugs are illegal, for the very mob-related reason you state. I'd even imagined some massive payoff scheme to Congress for keeping them illegal, since the only people who profit from illegal drugs, aside from the sellers and importers themselves (neither of whom apparently have lobbyists) are the police and the prison system.

Oh, wait ...

And why anyone would want to keep a woman from renting her body is equally unfathomable. We ALL rent our bodies for whatever work we do, but to paraphrase Orwell, I guess SOME work is more equal than OTHER work ...

[AuthorJudy]

We can't decriminalize all but one drug simply because it wouldn't solve the problem we're addressing here. If we're to save the money on drug enforcement for one, might as well continue for all. People who want heroin will get it...right or wrong, legal or criminal...they *will* get their supply. Decriminalization is simply good sense. You know that old saying about common sense? It's just not that common and people *will* do drugs. Just as teens *will* have sex. While we're at it, I'll take a short side road. The rational, sensible, good-sense solution to abortion is preventing unwanted pregnancies. More than half of the procedures done in this country are on teens less than 18 years old. I for one know two people (and I'm 62 years old) who waited until they married to have sex. It's very hypocritical for parents to expect anything different than their *own* history. Sorry...off on a different soap box. Cheers!

[millyvvv]

why is it so hard for people to accept drugs for recreation when we are the most medicated society in history? puritanical hypocrisy!