Review the material in the chapters and the folders in the section on Drugs and Alcohol and Sexual Deviance to formulate a one page history of American patterns of drug use and prostitution. Consider the problems of addiction and drug crime, sexual slavery and other negative forces that push or pull a person into sex work in a page more. Finally express your opinion on the question of whether personal use of drugs and the free choice of sexual partners and practices should be regulated by society in ways that include the criminal penalties?
As a way of starting, consider the following:
America has had an interesting history with drugs and alcohol. There is evidence of massive addiction and panicked crusades to stop drug use and sales. However, like most humans Americans like to consume drugs and alcohol for a wide range of reasons.
Drug use is more controlled in the early 20th century than it was in the late 19th century. Currently, the movement to legalize marijuana has gained momentum and many states are changing their marijuana laws to eliminate criminal penalties for possession. However, American lives are sometimes ruined due to alcohol and drug abuse. Huge industries have grown and profited in the national effort to treat addiction.
Drug prohibitions have aided in the transformation of local crime gangs into international criminal organizations who are implicated in waves of crime and violence in nearly every continent.
There are similar attitudes toward sexual deviance, most notably prostitution and private sexual preferences. Americans are ambivalent about interfering into private lives, and tend to support such policies only after grievous cases of sexual crime are revealed. Americans’ interest in sex workers and pornography has created profitable markets. Gay people have recently succeeded in century long struggle for acceptance, and federal and state laws are now changing. We are now confronting the issue of how free a person can be in a free society.