ADDICTION TREATMENT OFFERS WEAPON AGAINST PROSTITUTION

Issue: Women Who Sell Their Bodies For Money To Buy Drugs. We Suggest:
Officials Are Taking An Enlightened Attitude.

Police officers and substance abuse counselors agree that few women
willingly choose the degrading and profoundly dangerous life of a street
prostitute. Most do so out of desperation. They are addicts, and the money
they earn by selling their bodies is spent to ease a brutal craving for drugs.

Valerie Keller, director of Acadiana Outreach Center says such women "feel
there are no other options."

Lafayette does a creditable job of controlling prostitution. As recently as
the 1960s, it was practiced openly in a number of downtown bars. One
well-known bawdy house was located next door to the parish courthouse. A
ring operating out of Lafayette once did a thriving business transporting
prostitutes by air to locations around the country.

While it is controlled and contained in a narrow environment today, the
threat of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases makes it a continuing
danger.

Prostitution will probably never be eliminated, but the number of women
working the streets can be reduced through substance abuse treatment.
Fortunately, many officials are taking a more enlightened approach to the
problem. Prosecutor Floyd Johnson says that, often, the goal of a
prostitution raid is less to punish than to use criminal charges as
leverage to force prostitutes into treatment.

It is a humane approach, and the results from cases where prostitutes have
undergone treatment indicate that it is an effective weapon against
prostitution.