For years many people have noticed the hypocrisy of federal drug policy. While the federal government spends roughly $15 billion per year fighting the war on drugs (which is actually a war on the American people), the CIA has profited countless millions of dollars from running cocaine (from Central & South America) and opium (from Afghanistan & Asia).
Now, the government hypocrisy surrounding another victimless crime is coming to light. Fox News reports, “It all started when an argument over payment between a Secret Service agent and a Colombian prostitute spilled into the hallway of the Hotel Caribe, where a contingent of agents and military personnel were staying as part of a security detail in advance of the President’s arrival for last weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.”
The Guardian reports, “The secret service detail didn’t simply take a stroll to an isolated brothel. There are rows of sex clubs and brothels in the Cartagena prostitution zone, where many women from different countries also walk the streets in search of customers seeking sexual services. The US officials were among the hundreds of US sex tourists who, every year, visit these sex clubs and brothels… the US military code of justice… says, buying women in prostitution anyplace is a crime for US servicemen.” It is not a crime for other federal agents.
Across the United States roughly 100,000 people are arrested per year for offenses related to prostitution. The vast majority of the individuals arrested for prostitution related offenses have harmed no one. Yet when government officials are involved with a prostitute, no one is arrested. In fact, only six of the twelve Secret Service Agents involved in the scandal have been asked to resign.
This is yet another case of government hypocrisy. However, I believe the political uproar created by this scandal will lead to the creation of more legislation. Instead of passing another law regulating consensual activity between adults, the Congress and every State Legislature should instead remove all prohibitions on the voluntary exchange of money for goods and services.