Lawmakers behind the learning curve in dealing with prostitution

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OPINION — Re: My suggestions for curbing prostitution in Arizona — drugs, gambling and prostitution are inherently and constitutionally legal individual behavior and cannot be outlawed in that context. When unconstitutionally outlawed, it only worsens the lives of those who do it and society at large.

Most of us understand that we cannot commit a crime against ourselves. It’s our life and our body, and we have a 100% God-given right to choose to do evil against ourselves just as much as we have the right to choose to do good, and to suffer the consequences accordingly. Of course, we all understand this when it’s our own behavior.

During Prohibition we were taught that you cannot outlaw drug use or gambling without making the problem worse. I said “we were taught,” not that “we learned,” since so many communities and governments did not learn. Somehow, magically, those principles which applied to self-destructive abuse of alcohol did not apply to other drugs, even those far less dangerous, not to mention gambling and prostitution.

 While one cannot logically be charged with a crime against oneself, that does not prevent us from recognizing that self-destructive behaviors can, and usually do, also have corruptive consequences to the community. We have the right to protect ourselves against those consequences by limiting their practice accordingly.

Thankfully, history shows us that drawing a constitutional line between poor individual choices and public consequences not only allows us to far more effectively manage the consequences to ourselves, but also to those corrupted by those behaviors.

Apparently, ignorance of history in the age of information is still endemic. If the recent marijuana reform laws are any indication, which demonstrably lack true reform and simple common sense, we have decades to go to learn to deal effectively with prostitution. Meanwhile, both society and prostitutes will continue to suffer needlessly.

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