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Comment by cm3 | Hacker News Reader

In places where drug use or prostitution are illegal there are usually interest groups earning quite bit via the penal system or just plain stealing people's stuff because they were involved in drugs or prostitution.

So logically speaking it should be officially accepted as a profession and managed by the health department in order for the sex workers to not suffer as much. Then you can also apply the same controls to sex trafficking as you do to the non-sex shadow work force.

Portugal's health system allowed them to legalize drug use and create a healthier society and decrease related crime. Let's face it, if someone wants to smoke crack or pay a sex worker, they will do it regardless. Might as well control and earn money the usual way like liquor taxes.

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Replacing logic with emotions or beliefs is one of the biggest flaws in law making around the world. Not much has changed in that regard except that we've accepted more scientific facts into our lives since the days of witch hunts. But there's still too much science ignored or discarded in favor of beliefs to make laws.

Baptists and bootleggers.

What do you mean?

Not the original poster, but I assume: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists

Basically, regulations are supported by people who believe the activity should be not happen and those who profit from the facilitating an illegal activity. The phrase itself is reference to Prohibition in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists

So basically human traffickers and drug cartels would if they could, as absurd as it sounds, sponsor campaigns of right-wing conservatives.

Assuming you mean social conservatives, that doesn't sound conservative at all.

Does conservative have a different meaning in the US just as liberal? If so, maybe I should have written "right-wing republicans".

There are different kinds of conservatives. Social conservatives make up only about 30% of "right-wing republicans". Most of us are more interested in the fiscal side.

I many ways US politics is similar to some middle east countries, but it could be solved by getting rid of the two party system and adopting one like in Germany or other places where you can be represented by real liberals who actually don't dabble in social beliefs but just freedom and tax reforms.

I agree. The two party system worked pretty well when power was devolved to the lowest practical level, but at this point US states are just administrative districts, so we'd probably be better served with a multiparty parliamentary system where you can pick a national party that more closely resembles your beliefs.

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