END THE WAR ON DRUGS, PROSTITUTION

Is anyone really surprised that two years after anti-crime sweeps,
drugs and prostitution still plague Brownsville?

I'm not.

Much like America's war on drugs, Operation Brownsville and its
aftermath have been colossal failures.

Any war on drugs, whether waged on a national or local scale, is a
losing battle.

This is not for want of effort.

The United States alone spends some $40 billion each year trying to
eliminate the drug supply, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration. It arrests more than a million of its citizens each
year for drug offenses, locking up half a million of them.

During the year and a half since Operation Brownsville, Escambia
County has spent nearly a half-million dollars to rid the community
of drugs and prostitutes -- to no avail.

Crimes of consent

There is neither enough money nor manpower to track down, arrest and
prosecute all drug dealers and prostitutes.

It is a waste of money and misuse of manpower, both of which could
be better suited to chasing down and locking up violent offenders.

Prostitution and mind-altering drugs have been around for centuries.
You can't stop it; you can only try to contain it.

One only has to look at history to see the folly of arresting people
for consensual crimes, like drug abuse and prostitution. The sale
and manufacture of alcohol was made a consensual crime during
prohibition. America still drank plenty of booze.

When alcohol was legalized again, the United States made plenty of
money by taxing the sale of it.

It could do the same with drugs and prostitution.

People's choice

If consensual crimes were legal, it would not only save America
money, it would help it earn more. The Office of National Drug
Control Policy estimates that Americans spend about $66 billion a
year on drugs alone. This money does not usually enter the regular
economy, but stays in the black market of drugs.

Not only could America tax consensual crimes if they were legal, it
could also regulate them. The government would have to impose health
standards, thus making the drugs and prostitution safer than they
would be on the streets.

The laws seem to be in place to promote some sort of national
morality. Well, there is no national morality.

It is time that our government stop treating its citizens like they
are irresponsible children.

The people should be the ones to decide if they want to use drugs or
buy sex, not the government and the church or antiquated laws and
outdated mores.