to think that truely feminist stance on prostitution, is to support legalisation?

[StuckInTheMiddleWithYou]

I recently moved to an inner city area.

There is a known brothel here and a homeless shelter.

I have seen some very sad, desperate sights walking past our home lately.

I wouldn't want any child of mine involved in this trade, however this does strike as something which desperately needs regulating - for the sake of the women, girls and boys involved.

Prohibition has failed miserably.

AIBU?

Dittany, why do YOU think women become prostitutes?

Andf what to the people who need the substances do?

"A woman being sold to a man so he can access her vagina, even if it is done legally is being harmed by being reduced to an object and commodity without any thought to her actual feelings or circumstances." That's called slavery, ditanny, not prostitution. And slavery should never again be legal.

claig, so why can I still lay my hands on illegal drugs EASILY? It doesn't work! The US has spent BILLIONS of dollars on stopping the cocaine trade. It is more prevalent than ever. More people died is all.

'A woman being sold to a man'

And this is where you fail.

They would have to seek medical treatment and get the drugs from the state, who would slowly rehabilitate them in a controlled fashion. The criminals hooked them, once the criminals are removed, future generations wouldn't be hooked. The current hooked generation would need help from the state to break their addiction.

"claig, so why can I still lay my hands on illegal drugs EASILY? It doesn't work! The US has spent BILLIONS of dollars on stopping the cocaine trade."

because they are not really stopping the problem. They declare a war on drugs and there are more drugs. A war on cancer and there is more cancer. Why haven't they stopped it? Good question. Some people think they don't mean what they say. Singapore has stopped it. Why don't they do what they do?

claig, you have more faith in the police force than I do. Where there is a will there is a way. Unless you advocate some kind of Big Brother society where we are all watched all the time.

Is it not possible for me to have turned my life into something more positive and be both?

I am telling you the facts, I am telling you the way it is yet you will twist whatever you want to be right and don't believe someone here and now who is telling you they have had first hand experience and what it isd really like rather than these elusive women I do not believe for one second that you know.

Thats fine if thats who you are but I'll just get on with bing who I am and try to make a small difference.

Hmmm slight flaw in your argument claig - at the moment there is about an 11 week wait for a bed in a NHS rehan round here - there would be full scale anarchy and riots.

Singapore enforces the death penalty by hanging and has, according to Amnesty International, one of the world's highest execution rates relative to its population.[3] The government has contested Amnesty's assertion that this constitutes a violation of human rights. Caning, applied in addition to imprisonment, is a routine punishment for numerous offences. Internment without trial has been used to deal with espionage, terrorism, organized crime, and narcotics. Citizens? privacy rights occasionally have been infringed, and the government has restricted freedom of speech and freedom of the press and has limited other civil and political rights. Censorship of sexual, political and racially or religiously sensitive content is extensive.

Singapore does not offer a civilian service alternative to two-year military service, which is compulsory for all males. Four conscientious objectors, all members of the banned religious group Jehovah's Witnesses, were imprisoned in 2004.[3]

Yes - sounds good to me

Claig doesn't Singapore have a death penalty for drug trafficking not exactly something Britain can opt into.

We are the most watched Big Brother country in the world. The progressives removed more of our liberties than anyone else, they even wanted our DNA on a centralised database. Anything can be done if there is a will. Mussolini smashed the Sicilian mafia, people said it couldn't be done. It was the US that used the Mafiosi like Lucky Luciano against Mussolini. Singapore doesn't have the same problem and they are less of a surveillance society than us.

Addiction is the syptom, not the cause - what are we going to do? Enlist an army of addictions counsellors to unpick whatever landed that person in addiction in the first place?

Oh and you're forgetting one major issue - people who are in addiction actually need to be ready to change to be able to successfully put change into action.....

"at the moment there is about an 11 week wait for a bed in a NHS rehan round here - there would be full scale anarchy and riots."

exactly, there are not enough resources thrown at the problem. It is not a major priority. It is not treated seriously enough. There'd be no riots.

No there are not enough resources you are right in that - but IME and IMO you are wrong in your other solutions to a highly complex problem.

Would you extend this to alcohol too? As that is a bigger problem that all the illegal drugs put together?

In Daily Mail land of course, this would be entirely reasonable

there is no will to tackle alcohol, and whatever the politicians say it is not as life-threatening a problem as heroin addiction. Politicians bring up the alcohol problem so that they can increase taxes. Every now and then they have a media campaign about binge drinking, just before they propose new taxes on alcohol. they are not serious about the alcohol problem. Some countries have severe penalties on alcohol and they don't have the problem. Anything can be done if they want to. But I am against draconian punishments on alcohol, as alcohol is part of our culture.

Portofino, there are young people dying and runing their lives due to drug addiction. There are criminal fatcats making millions. I think it could be stopped. It wouldn't need the death penalty, it could be done without that.

Alcohol is a much bigger problem than Heroin, is a massive drain on the NHS and the police....

Why don't you just go and live in South Korea Claig and leave the rest of us to our democracy where people actually care about what lies beneath....

legalised prostitution is morally wrong.the state benefiting,taking tax and NI from a largely exploitative industry is galling.the vast majority of people in prostitution have poor socio-economic backgrounds,poor educational attainment and have experienced familial/social dysfunction...and yes there is the oft cited polished educated multi-lingual graduate who just loves being prostitute.but hell that is a tiny minority

and as with any market rate,someone will inevitability undercut price with illegal workers and lower price

cccpc i believe i saw the thread you referred to wrt dittany being spoken to by working girls... there was a lot of blether on it and insinuation but no one on the thread admitted to having worked as a prostitute.

Claig - some people (young and old) like taking drugs, and choose to ddo so regardless of the law.

3% of young people who try illegal drugs get addicted to them.

The stat for alcohol is massively higher.

There are criminal fatcats making millions on alcohol - they are called the British Government

"Alcohol is a much bigger problem than Heroin"

if that was true, why do they sell alcohol by the bucketful in Tescos, and does Tesco not sell heroin?

There's nothing wrong with South Korea, you must be thinking of the progressive paradise of North Korea.

claig - I swear you live in a parallel universe!