[quote=harvey]Because we are still clinging to the notion that some activities can be stopped by making laws against them.[/quote]
Exactly. It should have become entirely obvious that we simply can’t legislate morality. Doing drugs, gambling, or paying for sex may be “wrong,” but unless there’s an actual victim in this “crimes” then they really aren’t and should be decriminalized.

Making these activities “illegal” only contributes to create more crime (the opposite of what poorgradstudent says below).

[quote=poorgradstudent]My biggest concern about prostitution is it encourages kidnapping and trafficking.[/quote]
That’s only true because prostitution has artificially been made illegal. If it were not illegal, it would be regulated, transparent, etc. In any case, if the problem is kidnapping and trafficking, then we should prosecute and penalize the kidnappers and traffickers.

Similarly, cars are often used in bank robberies. Do we make cars illegal? No, because driving a car is not the problem, the bank robbing is the problem.

[quote=walterwhite]Human trafficking is probably a vanishingly small portion of paid sex encounters. Some housecleaners may have been procured under similar circa but we don’t criminalize housecleaning.[/quote]
Well put. Years back, a catholic friend of mine was against legalizing abortion. As he was running out of arguments, he said “but if it’s legal, then what’s to stop a woman from aborting on her own and jeopardizing her health?” I said, “what????”

One more: people who support the failed “drug on wars” and want to keep cocaine illegal often say “but if it’s legal, what’s to stop a school bus driver from going to work on drugs?” Again, how can people cloud and distort issues like that? What would be a crime here is driving under the influence, and worse so if the driver has passengers. But the use of cocaine per se, in the privacy of one’s house, would have no victims, and hence should not be criminalized.