Marijuana and Prostitution Essay

This paper has been divided into two parts. The first part discusses the legalization of prostitution, and the second part of the paper discusses the legalization of marijuana.
Prostitution has been the oldest profession in the world. The process of using one’s body to eaer money has been done in the olden ages and the pre historic times since the advent of the man into the earth. As of now, prostitution is not legalized in many jurisdictions all over the world. Countries such as the Netherlands have been able to legalize prostitution due to their progressive ideas and the fact that it is a huge way of making money through taxing this profession. In the following paragraphs I will explain whether prostitution is like any other crime, and if not then why do we need to legalize the oldest profession in the world.
Question: 1 Whether Prostitution is like any other crime in the world?
Prostitution is the art of providing the pleasure of sex on a continued basis for a long time. It has often been remarked that prostitution is like any other crime, but when one has a closer look at things and analyses them from a different perspective, one arrives at a conclusion that prostitution is not like any other crime. To commit a crime, there are two essential components, which have to be fulfilled by the person committing the crime. The first is the fact that there should be Mens Rea, and the second is the fact that there should be Actus Resus.
Mens Rea is the guilty mind, while actus reus is the act committed by the guilty mind. A guilty mind under the definition of criminal law would constitute a mind which has negativism imbibed in it along with having a wrong intention of doing things in his/her favour. Prostitution is not connected with the guilty mind at all, if it was then having sex in the bedroom would also constitute to having a guilty mind and would have therefore been labeled as a crime.
The imperative understanding which needs to be made here is that prostitution is nothing but providing the services of sex, and nothing else. We avail the services of law, other pleasure seeking services, then under the same perspective and the same context we also seek the services of Sex, and therefore nothing wrong should be perceived in that context.
Prostitution should be legalized for two significant reasons. The first one is the fact that there is no inclusion of any sort of guilty mind in the process of availing these services. The primary reason for availing this service is for pleasure seeking purpose and not from a criminal intention. The second reason is to have a check on the spread of STDs, especially AIDS. If prostitution is legalized all over the world, especially in countries such as India and South Africa, then it would help dramatically in having a check on AIDS along with the process of the controlling the same.
Question 2: Whether Marijuana should be legalized?
Yes, Marijuana should be legalized. In the United States, Marijuana has already been legalized in Colorado and Washington. This is just the beginning. The primary reason behind the legalization is again the same as prostitution. There is no criminal intent or any element criminality in the use and distribution of the drug. There have been many theories as to why marijuana was banned in the first place, but it must be understood and examined by the scholars that marijuana was the first drug of its kind, which provided pleasure to the human mind and brought him relaxation. The use of Marijuana for personal consumption has to be legalized in more places in the USA. The process can be initiated by having decriminalization legislation in place, and then once the response is understood and the feedback is received, then the process of legalization can be initiated. All this will happen in due course of time, and therefore although we need to keep moving slowly, we need to make sure that we move in the right direction.
The benefits of legalization of Marijuana will be in a huge number. First of all, it will add as a source of income for the Government. The Government can tax the people who are consuming the drug along with those who are growing the same and distributing the drug, so that it can add to the bank balance of the Government. Along with a source of income, the process of legalization will also keep a check on illegal trade, since that is where the criminal aspect of Marijuana comes into play. The important thing to understand is that the illegal trade has been going on for ages and once the Govt. curbs the same by enabling legalization of the drug, it will also curb the inflow and outflow of black money, thus keeping a check on terrorism and other unlawful activities which are funded by the exercise of black money in various economies along with the USA.
In the current context, there are a lot of policing costs, which go along with the process of checking and curbing the distribution and sale of Marijuana. If the drug is legalized and decriminalized, then this process can be brought to a halt hence reducing the costs of the Govt. for the same. It would be a great relief for the Government if the cost of policing is reduced hence enabling the Government to use that money elsewhere for other developmental projects.
Marijuana has been one of the oldest pleasure-seeking drugs, which is grown from the soil, as a natural phenomenon. There exists no reason other than a few alcohol giants with their hypocritical thoughts intervening in the process of legalizing and decriminalizing this drug. Hence, after having labeled the reasons for the legalization of Marijuana, I believe that the United States of America should legalize this drug in the coming years.
References
chmalleger, F. (2012). Criminology today (6th Edition), Upper Saddle River: NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall Publishing.
Psychological and sociological research and the decriminalization or legalization of prostitution
Violence and Legalized brothel prostitution in Nevada: Examining safety risk and prostitution policy, Barabara G Bents and Kathyrine Hausebeck