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.
