Curious if an adult discussion can be had on this.
I will start
Drugs, there are currently some drugs that are classified as illegal that in my opinion should be legal providing they are regulated. Regulation (like alcohol) would insure a safer product while increasing tax revenue
Prostitution. Again, if regulated by the health department It would be a safer situation between two consenting adults with no harm to anyone.
Fell free to discuss these that I started with or bring up some other instances of illegal practices.
The first thing that comes to mind for me as goes an item or practice for which a nation may use attempt to use legislation as a, or one of, means to modify citizens behavior so it conforms to one or more expectations is that the goal itself must be evaluated and clearly defined before endeavoring to enact statutes. The questions I ask are:
- What precisely is the goal?
- Is it achievable to any degree?
- If yes, what are the upper and lower limits of its potential fruition?
- If no, discard or modify the goal.
- What is the degree to which the goal must be accomplished in order to deem the statute a success?
- What factors besides the statute affect one's ability to accurately observe and measure the statute's success?
- Can they be overcome/accounted for efficiently?
- If no, is that a good enough reason to discard or modify the goal?
- Given the answers to the above questions, and that the goal hasn't been scrapped, what must be done to achieve the goal?
- Can those actions be performed for an acceptable sum (time & money)?
- If no, discard or modify the goal.
- Will the majority of citizens abide by the statute(s) enacted and actions undertaken to achieve the goal?
- If no, discard or modify the goal.
After answering the questions, then I'd decide whether to pursue achieving the goal, be it the original one or the modified one.
As go the two things you've identified -- the behavior of prostitution (and related acts) and presumably the availability of various substances, drugs -- the goals I'd set are:
- Minimizing the incidence of adults participating unsafely (deliberately or accidentally) in the delivery or purchase of sex services.
- Minimize the availability of and access to drugs to minors.
Neither strikes me as a thing that can be prevented or eliminated in and of itself, so I wouldn't bother to try. Water flows, bees sting, sh*t happens, and some, perhaps many, people will want, seek out and pay for sex and drugs, and other people are quite able and willing to provide those things.
To the extent that it's adults purchasing/buying either and being able to do so safely, I have nothing to say about their doing so. Adults can be assumed to be responsible for knowing and fully understanding or bothering to understand/learn the intrinsic risks of using drugs and providing or procuring the services of a sex worker prior to availing themselves of either. That's just one of the burdens of being an mature adult, so too is the burden of refraining from using either if one knows one is not well informed about the risks of doing so. I'm of a different mind regarding minors.
Lest one think that my position on the matters noted is one whereby I feel drug use/sale and sex services, again both providing and purchasing them, should be encouraged, let me be clear. I do not encourage one's being involved with either of them. There's a huge distinction between a thing being available and it's provision/use being encouraged. Numerous are the things I think should be freely available, but far fewer among them are they which I'd encourage one to buy, sell, or use.
