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Proposed administrative procedure - CIVIL.06
Regulating alcohol, drugs and tobacco and legalizing prostitution
Contents
- Problems?
- Legalizing prostitution
- Non-police steps to reduce prostitution
- Legalizing drugs
- Non-police steps to reduce drugs
- Legalizing alcohol
- Non-police steps to reduce alcohol
- Stopping excessive taxation on liquor/tobacco
- Draft of the act to enact code for the proposals
Problems?
Alcohol, drugs, tobocco and prostitution are indeed problems, and society needs to take step that would reduce these vices, but using police/court force, threat of prison or excessive taxation MUST NOT be used to reduce them. Why?
Empowering policemen/judges to use prison powers against alcoholics, durg addicts and sex workers (or their clients and middlemen) only breeds excessive violence and corruption in policemen/judges, and harassment of non-violent individuals. The victims of this violence and corruption are addicts, sex workers, middlemen, clients etc, who are otherwise perfectly non-violent and harmless citizens. The violence does NOT reduce the vices, but convert them into hurt, agonized, uncaring and sometimes sociopathic individuals, and thus damages the society in many ways. Worse, this corruption/violence creates a habit of extorting bribes in policemen, prosecutors and judges. Once they form this habit of extracting bribes from alcohol addicts, drug addicts, sex workers and middlemen, the policemen, judges etc will start looking for oppurtinities in every other area, and soon start start acting like "businessmen". This further increases damage to the society.
AFAIS, with or without brute police force, these vices (alcohol, drugs, sex-work etc) remains. Removing police force against alcohol, drugs and sex-work will certainly increase its prevelence, but using police force creates more side problems like harassed individuals and corruption in police. Hence IMO, legalizing these activities reduce the total "bads" in the society.
I will discuss each vice seperately.
Legalizing "sale of sex"
In India, the legal status of sex-work is unclear. The Supreme Court judges had once ruled that the working lady and the client are not criminals. So when a policeman arrests sex workers and clients, he is violating SC-guideline, but so far no policeman has been punished for such violation. The middleman is indeed a criminal as per the existing law. But what if the middleman was employed by working lady herself as an agent or for protection? The status is hopelessly unclear.
The policemen take full advantage of this ambiguity. With or without any evidences/witnesses, they promptly lock the working lady, client and middleman. And then they shameless beat them till they agree to pay huge bribes. The general modus operadi is to arrest the person just a day before holiday so that he can be kept in police custody for 1-2 more days, before presenting him to a judge who may issue bail. In most cases, they get a bail from the judge, but that too is quite expensive.
And the intension of Ministers, policemen etc for arresting working ladies etc is NEVER to stop the vice. In fact, one of the biggest and most paying clientele of this sex industry are these corrupt Ministers, officers, policemen and judges, who otherwise project themselves as "committed" fighters against the vice of sex-sale. Mostly, the Ministers, policemen etc take action against them ONLY to extract bribes, maintain a fear in the minds of sex-workers, and also get free favors.
Essentially, sex-sale is between the two adults with full consent (3 adults, if I include middleman). The allegation of exploitation is fabricated by Ministers, policemen and intellectuals to justify the atrocities they want to commit. In a large number of cases, the working ladies are NOT poor, and many times they are wealthier than the clients they are with. Even if the working lady is in the profession due to poverty and sex sale is a case of exploitation, then the exploiters are the Ministers/officers/intellectuals etc who have created laws and economic policies which impoverish them; the client is NOT an exploiter. And certainly the working lady is NOT an exploiter. So if poverty/exploitation is an issue, the individuals who cause poverty, namely Ministers/intellectuals, should be arrested not the working ladies, their clients or the middlemen. Neveretheless, in the name of stopping exploitation, Ministers, policemen and intellectuals insist that working lady and the client should be imprisoned !!! This only shows their desire to trample on perfectly non-violent citizens by cooking up any excuse out of air.
Anyone who has been part of law enforcement by police/courts/prisons, or who has studied them from close has understood that it is futile to ask policemen/court to curb sex work as there is no aggressor and no victim, and a large majority of citizenry does not bother. Then why do so many Ministers/MPs/MLAs, judges, policemen and intellectuals insist on using prisons and torture? The MPs, judges and policemen insist on laws to imprison sex workers etc ONLY becuase such laws give them oppurtunity to extort bribes and extort X-rated favors for free or at reduced price. And intellectuals support laws to imprison/harass sex workers as most intellectuals have nexuses/friendships with Ministers, MPs, officers, judges, policemen etc and so would not take a stand on this issue that would reduce incomes of Ministers, policemen etc as that would weaken their nexuses/friendships.
All in all, there is no ethic in imprisoning working ladies, their clients or middlemen, as long as there is full consent. In case violence, force, threat etc are used, the courts should imprison the criminals.
So my proposal is to decriminalize sex-work, and give complete immunity to sex-workers, clients and middlemen. How?
I dont see a need to pass a seperate law to de-criminalize sex-sale. The Jury System (proposal CT.06, click here for details) will automaticallyde-criminalize and legalize sex sale. How? The CT.06 proposal ensures that policemen can imprison an accused ONLY after approval of over 8 out of 12 Jurors. So if Ministers, MLAs, intellectuals etc decide to impose prison sentence on working ladies, and they manage to get such a law passed by stealth, the actual imprisonment would happen only when Jurors agree. Now unlike MPs, Ministers and policemen, Jurors have no interest in extorting bribes from accused, nor Jurors have logistic and time necessary to do so. And unlike intellectuals, Jurors have no nexuses with policemen, Ministers etc. and so have no motivation to protect their financial interests. So even if some Jurors find the act of sex-sale distasteful, few would agree for imprisonment. Hence CT.06 will legalize prostitution for all practical purposes.
In addition to CT.06, proposed procedure CT.02 i.e. Jury System over Policemen (please click here for details) would also help in decriminalize sex work. How? There is no glory or fame --- i.e. policemen know that citizenry NEVER praises them for arresting a buch of working ladies or clients. And few commons give a damn about sex sale; they are more worried about crimes like violence, cheating, bribery and tax-evasion. Then why would a policeman arrest/harass sex workers, clients and middlemen, given that it fetches no glory? ONLY to extort bribes, increase their influence by creating fear, and obtain free favors. But procedure CT.02 makes it too risky for a policeman to take bribes and indulge into atrocities. So policemen would see little reason to chase the sex-workers, and instead focus on something that can get them some fame and glory like arresting violents, thieves, cheat, bribe seekers and tax evader. So the procedure CT.02 will also help in protecting sex-workers etc.
So the procedures CT.02 and CT.06 will be sufficient to decriminalize prostitution.
Non-police steps to reduce prostitution, and its evil effects
The procedures EAS.01-16 (please click here for details) will reduce poverty and create a life long economic security. This will drastically reduce poverty as a reason to succumb to prostitution, and reduce prostitution as well.
The only menace of prostitution is that it increases the level of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). This can be reduced by reducing poverty. How will reduction in poverty reduce in number of incidences of unprotected sex? Becuase a well-off working lady is in a better position to say NO to demand of unprotected sex. In addition, once the poverty reduces, the working ladies will be in better position to obtain and understand information on STDs. So procedures EAS.01-16 will reduce the poverty and hence spread of STDs.
In addition, the District Health Officer should organized tours where working ladies and clients are taken to hospital wards housing STD patients, perticularly patients of AIDS, herpes etc. This will create a fear in their minds, and make them stick to protected sex.
It may be worthwhile making a law, that working ladies, clients and middlemen MUST be pre-registered, and non-registered working ladies, clients and middlemen must be punished. The registration law be useful to imprison the hypocritical MPs, judges, lawyers, intellectuals etc who give tall speeches for defucnt concepts like chastity, moral values, social values etc but otherwise are heavy frequenters themselves.
Legalizing drugs
The enforcement against drugs increases the profits of dealers, who in turn have to share the profits with MPs, Ministers, policemen, officers and judges. The enforcement does NOT decrease consumption. And worsens the economic life of the addict, as he is forced to blow away a large part of his income into durgs.
To give an example, say 1 gram of coke costs Rs 50. But due to enforcement, the price goes 10-100 times more and so the addict ends up paying Rs 500 to Rs 5000. The money goes to the newtork of drug dealers, but they need to share this Rs 450 - Rs 4950 of excess profit with Ministers, MPs, policemen, officers, lawyers and judges, or else the Ministers, policemen, judges etc would imprison them or might just kill them by staging a fake encounter. In the end, the dealers too ends up as pauper, and ALL profits, i.e. excess money obtained from addicts, are pockected by Ministers, policemen, lawyers, judges etc.
So the ban on drugs is just a mechanism that Ministers, intellectuals etc have implemented to siphon the money out of addicts' pockets into their own.
And this is how elitemen benefit from drug trade :
- a sucessful drug dealer gets loaded with black money
- often he will keep his money in a underground bank such as Swiss bank, Caymen Island banks or Mauritius banks
- when he dies, in gang war or encounter or in prison or otherwise, the money will become property of the bank owners
eg consider drug dealers of US. Almost all successful drug dealers in US eventually stuff their money in underground banks like Cayman Island banks, Swiss banks etc. These banks are owned by US/European bankers. And when drug delear dies, the money is gradually devored by these bankers. IOW, these bankers get benefitted at the cost of addicts. This is one reason why no Prez/Senator in US ever asks nations of Carribean Islands, Mauritius etc to stop their underground banks.
My point is that Ministers, policemen, officers, lawyers and judges insist on laws to imprison drug addicts ONLY with intension of extorting them. And some elitemen, namely bankers, also benefit from such laws. Now one question remains --- why do so many intellectuals support this extortion scheme? As I explained earlier --- a large number of intellectuals have dense nexuses/friendship with Ministers, officers, judges, lawyers etc and would do everything to protect the financial interests of Ministers, judges etc. The laws to imprison drug addict is a cash cow, and hence a holy cow, to Ministers, judges etc and hence these laws are holy cows to the intellectuals as well.
Why decriminalize drugs
As I said, the existing Ministers, officers, policemen, judges etc in India DO NOT intend to reduce the consumption of drugs. They ONLY intend to extort money from addicts. What is worse, is that I dont believe that we will ever be able to find large number of Ministers, poilicemen etc who would be interested in reducing consumption of drugs. So I dont see how ban on drugs can ever be implemented.
Further, AFAIS, the drugs damage ONLY the addicts and no one else. So there is NO prima facie case of arresting the addict, or suppliers as suppliers have provided drugs after request and full consent. The argument, that drugs ruin economy is wrong as it is ban on drugs which has inflated the price, not the cost of drugs.
How can drugs be decrimimalized?
So IMO, the drugs should be fully decriminalized. How? I do NOT see any need for a seperate procedure --- the procedures CT.02 and CT.06 are sufficient to decriminalize the drugs. How?
The procedure CT.06 ensures that policemen can imprison an accused ONLY after approval of over 8 out of 12 Jurors. So if Ministers/MPs/MLAs and intellectuals etc decide to impose prison sentence on drug addicts, and they manage to draft such a law, the actual imprisonment would happen only when Jurors agree in individual case. In almost all cases, Jurors will refuse to imprison addicts and even the middleman. Why? Unlike MPs, Ministers and policemen, Jurors have no interest in extorting money from drug addicts, nor Jurors have logistic and time necessary to do so. And unlike intellectuals, Jurors have no nexuses with policemen, Ministers etc. and so have no motivation to protect financial interests of policemen etc. And unlike intellectuals, Jurors are rustic and have no desire to control/regulate others' lives. So even if some Jurors find drugs distasteful, few would agree for imprisonment. Hence CT.06 de-criminalizes drugs to a considerable extent.
In addition to CT.06, proposed procedure CT.02 i.e. Jury System over Policemen(please click here for details) would also assist in decriminalize drugs. How? There is no glory or fame --- i.e. policemen know that citizenry NEVER praises them --- for arresting a bunch of perfectly non-violent addicts or delears, who are just minding their own lives and hurting no one. Now though a large number of commons would like to see a addicts take less and less drugs, few commons believe in imprisoning addicts. Then why would policemen arrest/harass addicts? ONLY to extort bribes and create a fear. But procedure CT.02 makes it too risky for a policeman to take bribes or commit atrocities. So policemen would see little reason to chase the addicts, and instead focus on something that can win some fame and glory like arresting criminals like murderers, violents, thieves, cheat, bribe seekers and tax evader.
Summarizing, CT.02 and CT.06 are sufficient to decriminalize drugs.
Reducing drugs without police force
The District Health Officer should organize tours where classI-XII studenrs are taken to hospitals which house drugs patients. The students should be given information about damaging effect of the drugs. This will create a fear in their minds, and would reduce the consumption.
Banning alcohol
The MLAs of states, like Gujarat, in India, have passed laws that empower policemen/judges to arrest/imprison those who have consumed liquor or are possessing it.
The prohibition law is officially defunct. The law, as it was passed by the Gandhian MLAs under the leadership of Morarjee Desai in late 1950s OFFICIALLY allows an addict to obtain permit to consume alcohol for "medical" purposes. To my knowledge, there is NO disease in world where alcohol i.e. ethanol would serve as medicine. And my knowledge in medicine is indeed inadequet, but so far I am yet to meet ANY doctor who can tell me name of a disease where ethanol would be serve as medicine. And if ethanol was so essential, the Gandhian MLAs who passed this law could have allowed "ethanol/water mix" ONLY as a medicine to be obatined from select medical store after doctor's prescription coupled with permit, and banned ALL flavored liquors like wines, whiskey, brandy, vodka etc. But Govt of Gujarat officially allows sale of such liquor, with brand names, to those who hold permits.
And what is "permit"? How does one get it? A certified doctor is required to state that "such and such person needs to drink liquor for medicinal purpose." Since no such disease exist, the doctor would speak this lie only if he has nexuses or he is paid. And after this, a police official needs to check additional requirements. IOW, only those who have tons of money to shell out or have nexuses with high level policemen/Ministers can manage to get a permit. And policemen are empowered to arrest/imprison all those who are having liquor and no permit.
In addition, the foreigners are permitted to consume liquor. This is another nonsense. There are several countries where prostitution is banned. But they dont legalize it for foreigners. If a law is good for citizens, it is also good for foreigners, who are otherwise not required to visit the state. The law also allows hotels with permit to legally stock liquor. The hotel is required to serve alcohol ONLY to guests with permit, but after giving monthly bribe to the local policemen, they are free to serve anyone who comes by.
Such enforcement against alcohol only increases the profits of illegal liquor dealers, who have to share the profits with MPs, Ministers, policemen, officers and judges. The enforcement does NOT decrease consumption. And it worsens the economic life of the addict, as he is forced to blow away a large part of his income into durgs.
To give an example, say 1 liter of country beer would cost Rs 10. But due to enforcement, the price goes 5-20 times more and so the addict ends up paying Rs 50 to Rs 200. The money goes to the newtork of liquor dealers, but they need to share this Rs 40 - Rs 150 of excess profit with Ministers, MPs, policemen, officers, lawyers and judges, or else the Ministers, policemen, judges etc would imprison them or might just kill them by staging a fake encounter. In the end, the dealers too ends up as paupers, and ALL profits are pockected by Ministers, policemen, lawyers, judges etc.
In addition to collecting bribes from liquor delears, the policemen once every 4-5 weeks will arrest a large number of addicts. Each addict is forced to pay bribe. And regardless of how much he pays, the policemen will mercilessly beat each and every addict. Why beatings? Such beatings increase the bribe that will come, and it also increases fear of policemen in commons' minds, which most policemen consider as an asset. And to some policemen, it acts as ego-booster and a stress releasing exercise. And they cant release ALL the addicts, as they need to show that some work is being done to check the alcohol. So some 5% arrestees are NOT booked, and sent to court. These unfortunate ones, in order to get bail, need to pay hire lawyers and pay anywhere from Rs 500 to Rs 2000 as fee. In addition, sometimes they even have to pay bribes to govt lawyers and the judges as well.
How does CM/Ministers/MLAs benefit from these bribery from liquor addicts? ALL police stations in Gujarat are required to send a monthly fund (called as "hafta") to local MLAs and the Home Minister. Some of this monthly collection comes from bribes extorted from liquor addicts.
So the ban on alcohol, as implemented by Ministers, policemen, lawyers and judges in Gujarat is just a mechanism that Ministers etc have implemented to siphon the money out of addicts' pockets into their own.
.
Now one question remains --- why do so many intellectuals support this extortion scheme? As I explained earlier --- a large number of intellectuals have dense nexuses with Ministers, officers, judges, lawyers etc and would do everything to protect the financial interests of Ministers, judges etc. The laws to imprison alcohol addict is a cash, and hence holy, cow to Ministers, judges etc and hence these laws are holy cows to intellectuals as well.
Further, AFAIS, the liquor damage ONLY the addicts and no one else. So there is NO prima facie case of arresting the liquor addict, or suppliers as suppliers have provided liquor after request and full consent of the addicts. The argument, that liquor ruin economy of addict is wrong as it is ban on liquor which has inflated the price, not the cost of liquor.
So IMO, the liquor should be fully decriminalized. How? I do NOT see any need for a seperate procedure --- the procedures CT.02 and CT.06 are sufficient to decriminalize the liquor? How?
The CT.06 proposal ensures that policemen can imprison an accused ONLY after approval of over 8 out of 12 Jurors. So if Ministers/MPs/MLAs and intellectuals etc decide to impose prison sentence on liquor addicts, and they manage to draft such a law, the actual imprisonment would happen only when Jurors agree in individual case. Now unlike MPs, Ministers and policemen, Jurors have no interest in extorting money from alcohol addicts, nor Jurors have logistic and time necessary to do such extortion. And unlike intellectuals, Jurors have no nexuses with lawyers, policemen, Ministers etc. and so have no motivation to protect financial interests of policemen etc. And unlike intellectuals, Jurors are rustic and have no desire to control/regulate others' lives. So even if some Jurors find liquor distasteful, few would agree for imprisoning the addict. Hence CT.06 de-criminalizes liquor to a considerable extent.
In addition to CT.06, proposed procedure CT.02 i.e. Jury System over Policemen (please click here for details) would also assist in decriminalize liquor. How? There is no glory or fame --- i.e. policemen know that citizenry NEVER praises them --- for arresting a bunch of perfectly non-violent liquor addicts or delears, who are just minding their own lives and hurting no one. Now though a large number of commons would like to see a addicts take less and less liquor, few commons believe in imprisoning liquor addicts. Then why would policemen arrest/harass addicts? ONLY to extort bribes and increase their influence. But procedure CT.02 makes it too risky for a policeman to take bribes. So policemen would see little reason to chase the addicts, and instead focus on something that can win some fame and glory like arresting criminals like murderers, violents, thieves, cheat, bribe seekers and tax evader.
Summarizing, CT.02 and CT.06 are sufficient to decriminalize liquor.
Reducing alcohol consumption without police force
The District Health Officer should organize tours where classI-XII studenrs are taken to hospitals which house patients whose illeness has been due to alcohol. The students should be given information about damaging effect of the alcohol. This will create a fear in their minds, and would reduce the consumption.
Stopping excessive taxation on liquor and tobacco
The Ministers/intellectuals insist on putting extremely high tax on alcohol and tobacco so that they can please elitemen by reducing tax burden on them. For more details on regressive taxation, please click here.
How can these regressive taxes be reduced? The procedure "TX.04 : Rejection by Juries" is sufficient to cancel such defunct regressive taxes. Please click here for details on TX.04.
Draft of the acts to legalize drugs, liquor, sex-sale and remove excessive taxes on liquor/tobocco
The procedures CT.02 and CT.06 will be sufficient to legalize sex-sale, drugs and alcohol. And procedure TX.04 is sufficient to remove excessive taxes on liquor and tobacco.
For details on CT.02, please click here, for details on CT.06, please click here and for details on TX.04, please click here.
The drafts to enact TX.04 at state level, CT.02 and CT.06 need to be passed in Assembly and draft to enact TX.04 at national level needs to be passed in the Parliament. To see the draft to enact CT.02, please click here, to see the draft to enact CT.06, please click here and to see the draft to enact TX.04, please click here.
     Now citizens can ask MLAs/MPs to pass these Acts. But IMO, it will be wiser for citizens to first enact procedure LM.02 and LM.03, and then use LM.02/LM.03 to pass these Acts draft WITHOUT any help from MLAs/MPs. To know about procedure LM.02, please click here and to know about procedure LM.03, please click here.
If you have any other question, please mail it to MehtaRahulC@yahoo.com. Thousand thanks in advance.