In a world gone mad, we\u2019re now seeing people so desperately dodge the archaic prostitution laws that they\u2019re using other crimes as alibies. And not just those ordinary day \u2018I made a mistake\u2019 sort of excuses, but actually admitting to taking and buying drugs. This was the case for Michael Wokoh this week, found kerb crawling the streets of Bristol in the early hours of the 20th of May this year.<\/p>\n
Defending himself in court, he told the judge that he was not, in fact, soliciting prostitution, but had been seeking to buy drugs. This is how upside down our legal system has become \u2013 it\u2019s better to profess outright guilt of one crime, so long as it does not get associated with the socially-stigmatised act of prostitution. Pumping drugs into your system through dirty needles? No problem \u2013 as long as you\u2019re not engaging in services freely offered by millions of women across the world.<\/p>\n
This is the political, social and legal system we have developed off the back of scaremongering and messy legislation. What the 44 year old man was actually doing is anybody\u2019s guess, but for us, if you\u2019re creeping alongside dimly-lit streets in your expensive Audi at 2am in the morning in a notorious red light district with a known prostitute in your car, you\u2019ll forgive the police officers who found them for making assumptions. <\/p>\n
Defending himself in court, he said: \u201cI suffer from anxiety and depression, and on this night I needed to self-medicate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a recovering drug addict, and so I don\u2019t keep any numbers for dealers on my phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know girls on the street could help me find drugs at that time of night.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019d love to believe the chap just based on the thoroughness of his fabrication, but we still remain a bit sceptical. There are surely better, safer ways to score drugs than snaking through red light districts. But maybe he is telling the truth \u2013 either way, it points to the absurdity that driving about scoring class A drugs (cocaine no less) is a more socially and legally acceptable activity than hiring somebody legally advertising their sexual services. <\/p>\n
One day, we hope to live within a world where prevailing social prejudice does not get in the way of progressive change to our legal system. The dangers of class A drugs are thoroughly documented, and the fact that this is a \u2018better reality\u2019 than prostitution means we live in a scary world \u2013 one where the perceived dangers aren\u2019t ever the true dangers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a world gone mad, we\u2019re now seeing people so desperately dodge the archaic prostitution laws that they\u2019re using other crimes as alibies. And not just those ordinary day \u2018I made a mistake\u2019 sort of excuses, but actually admitting to taking and buying drugs. This was the case for Michael Wokoh this week, found kerb crawling the streets of Bristol in the early hours of the 20th of May this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":22,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[160,53,26,164],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crime","tag-drugs","tag-escorts","tag-prostitutes"],"yoast_head":"\n