"Baltimore will no longer prosecute drug possession, prostitution and other low-level offenses"
"[Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn] Mosby's office, along with Baltimore police and BCRI, will work to support sex workers by partnering with local organizations like SPARC, a center for women in southwest Baltimore, Baltimore Safe Haven and the Baltimore branch of the Sex Workers Outreach Project."
There is a theory of policing called the broken windows approach that says you need to stop minor crime violations in order to prevent a snowball effect where minor crimes lead to more major ones. Middle class flight out of the city results otherwise. This approach has proven to be successful when applied in cities like New York.
The article linked to mentions public defecation. Allowing this can quickly lead to deterioration of the pleasantness of public spaces. Prostitutes and drug dealers openly soliciting business falls in the same category. Even if you think prostitution should be legalized as I do, you may not want a hooker hanging around on the sidewalk outside your house trying to drum up business.
so is this a green light to open up an escort or incall service?
I've never done an illegal drug and have no interest in doing so - but I think we'd be saving ourselves a lot of blood-and-treasure if drugs were legalized - making them illegal is not gonna make those that wanna take drugs stop taking them (if anything making them illegal may actually entice some young people to take them as a rebellious thing) - one just needs to look at what happened w/ prohibition.
Similarly - the sex-industry is referred to as "the oldest profession in the world" for a reason - people are not gonna want to stop buying sex and there will always be those willing to meet that demand similar to drugs.
Adults should be allowed to decide for themselves what they wanna do or not do as long as they are not directly hurting anyone else - the war on drugs and P4P is unwinnable and just criminalizes o/w non-criminal people along with a huge waste of resources and $$$.
So if you make the hard drugs legal, and the streets become even more flooded with the users you get this snowball effect a previous poster was talking about. The only way you can get away with legalizing the hardcore drugs like Meth and Heroine is to go full Libertarian and give homeowners their full 2nd Amendment rights back.
This is because all the people who suffer from manageable mental illness that stumble into these drugs will suffer from serious episodes once the damage from the drugs finishes off the last bits of restraint their brains are providing. You're going to have to accept that a person high on drugs who is having any sort of psychotic issue wherein they put a non using citizen in fear for their safety and gets shot by that citizen, the citizen walks away scott free. Do the blood tests after the fact and when you find the presence of the hard drugs you exonerate the citizen. Any other response is just going to unleash a living nightmare on the sober hard working citizens.
It's harsh but ask yourself about how many truly heinous crimes some user will try to weasel out of by claiming "I was high, it wasn't my fault". That's a not a society you want to live in.
I really don't think anyone that wants to use hardcore drugs will not use them b/c they are illegal - there may be some but it's probably such a small # that it doesn't make a difference.
No on is saying that other criminal acts associated with drugs (e.g. burglary; DUI; etc) should not be penalized like it's done today for alcohol, and even marijuana where it's legal.
When I watch TV shows on drugs at times they show the incredible mark-up in price from where it is produced to when it's finally in the U.S. (often over 1000% if I remember correctly) - one would assume making the drugs legal would bring down the price significantly and perhaps cut-down on illegal activities/crimes in order to get the $$$ for the supa-marked-up illegal drugs.
I don't necessarily buy that making drugs (or P4P) legal that it means we will then be flooded w/ it - cigarettes are legal and have been in decline - the $$$ saved on the war-on-drugs can be more effectively used for treatment and education - I don't think making drugs legal would make a whole bunch of people decide to become drug-users particularly hardcore drugs - I don't think making drugs illegal has been that much of a deterrent nor has their been a significant decrease in use.
Good. We should not have laws forbidding adults to engage in sex or drug use. Stop filling prisons with non-violent "criminals" and concentrate on real crime.
Prostitution cannot be decriminalized unless a framework to regulate it is instituted at the same time. Licensing, registration, and even unionization is necessary to make the transition from OC-controlled and independant vice to lawfully operated business.
Drugs are a different story. I've never heard from people overdosing on cigarettes. You can drink yourself to death, sure, but it takes a lot of effort. I cannot think of any set of circumstances or legal framework where you can legalize cocaine, heroine, crack, meth, fentanyl, etc. People in Florida who can not or do not get medical marijuana cards just buy it illegally, as is done with scheduled prescription drugs. I have never heard of people mugging strangers, burgling residences, breaking into vehicles, etc. to fund a cigarette addiction.
Look at what a fucking filthy cesspool Baltimore is. Look at how California has fallen from the Golden State to failed socialist quasi-republic. Nightly riots in Portland. Spiraling violent crime in New York. Bankrupt idiocracy of Detroit. Business as usual 1,000+ annual murders in Chicago. When are people going to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that democrats, liberals, and communists are all the same and all fucking unfit to govern?
"...drug possession, prostitution and other low-level offenses"
Low level?? Whether or not you think these activities should be legal these are very serious activities.
The idea that prisons are filled with non-violent criminals is pablum for the left. Its just as fucking stupid as people saying no one should be in jail for possessing weed. Buy a vowel retards. The asshole doing 5 years for possession pleaded a 10 year mandatory trafficking charge down, so being in prison for possession is a gift. Why people think that a euro-centric country such as the United States (in years past) that had the most successful run in history, can be replicated by changing leadership to people from shithole countries and total failure communities is mind boggling. Do progressives ever support a winner? Competence? Success? Fuck no. They are destroying under the mistaken belief they fail because of other people, not because of their culture.
Will this make Baltimore like Amsterdam? They have some problems.
How will this be a good thing for strip clubs and the block?
Marlo Stanfield: “The game’s the game.” Avon Barksdale: “Always.”
meant to say Will this be a good thing for Baltimore city strip clubs and the block?
Good for Baltimore.
"Will this be a good thing for Baltimore city strip clubs and the block?"
The Block is next to Police HQ and was already a look the other way situation so long as tourists stayed safe and shit wasn't in the streets. Other clubs (RIP Players Club) had UHM with nice talent even after the crackdown a decade or so back, but maybe they'll be easier to find now in higher end clubs.
Nothing on the IG or websites of Showcase or the Body Shop, and they are BYOB clubs so that’s a bit surprising that EI is opening first. We also have rising Covid positivity here. MD state averages were solidly down to under 3% positive, but the 7 day moving average has climbed over the last week and is at 5%. PG county has also been higher than the state average throughout the pandemic. Odd timing to reopen, but good news nonetheless.
Shitfuck. Meant to post this in the EI thread. I’ll paste.
That is my hope @wallanon, with decrim there’s really no reason for higher end ups (really all clubs) to start allowing extras, even openly.
A Baltimore City stripper offering extras may not be at serious risk of a prostitution conviction. However, a string of unprosecuted charges against dancers within a club could still easily put the club’s liquor license risk. That’s serious loss of money.
And Mosby didn’t say anything about decriminalizing “possession with intent to distribute” or whatever the legal term is for “running a house of ill-repute”.
I don’t anticipate most club’s tacit policy on ITC extras in Baltimore City to change too much.
This is a fair point @ifigottabedamned. I figured decrim would also extend to any and all related charges as well, but the liquor license point is a good one.
Baltimore and other dem-contolled strongholds seem intent on driving our decent people and honest citizens. I guess they prefer federal bailouts to actual tax revenue.
So they are just making the whole city Hamsterdam from the Wire.