R.H. Maxwell N Bur: Vancouver should legalize prostitution

Mayoral candidate R.H. Maxwell N Bur on his plans for the future of Vancouver
 

Solving the street worker problem: Prostitution is a business that is alive and kicking. Today in Canada there are thousands of women and men are involved in this trade. While there is good money to be made in this business some serious dangers are also prevalent.

The issue of prostitution is one that reaches to high levels of society and in which judges and high ranking officials participate. It is not going to go away any time soon. What I am planning to do is legalize it. By establishing houses of prostitution we can know where the girls and pimps are, and monitor dangers and diseases.

Our present way of policing this issue is costing the taxpayer far too much money. Not only is there the cost of the courts and incarceration, but many in governmental positions are being blackmailed by organized crime due to their involvement with adult and child prostitution. Some of these have come to light in the news in the past several years. Germany and Japan legalized sex trade workers. What’s wrong with Vancouver, B.C., Canada, doing likewise? It would stop people being killed.

Drugs: Decriminalize heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Legalizing and giving away drugs free would save us billions of dollars. Prosecuting individuals who have become drug addicts is costing the USA trillions of dollars through expensive judicial costs and incarceration. USA CIA bought it to keep the Vietnam war alive. They sell this drug to U.S. and Canadian crime families across the continent. Heroin and cocaine would be turned over to the medical labs under my plan and, under supervision, distributed through pharmacy outlets like London Drugs. Doctors would prescribe for addicted persons and those in uncontrollable pain.

Treating this as a medical problem has been tried in European countries, and they find it is working. It even helps reduce crime, because addicts don’t need to steal to get what they need.

Homelessness: I can fix the homeless problem in 24 hours. People in Vancouver are rightfully concerned about the homelessness problem. I will work with the people of Vancouver to fix this problem immediately. In fact, I don’t consider it a problem. The problem is created by landlords kicking people out. By stopping this you stop the problem.

If you are a good bookkeeper it is easy to see that putting people in jail costs money. Just how much do you think it costs to put one person in jail for a year? Do you think it costs $10,000, $25,000, $100,000, or $250,000? Well if you answered correctly you would have chosen D, $250,000. This does not even include police time and wages, pretrial centers, nor court and judicial costs. Exorbitant expenses like this could be much better used in constructing residences for destitute and marginalized citizens. 10,000 singles to 40,000 homeless families are estimated to be living in the Vancouver area. Now we may not keep a homeless person in jail for a year, but if he stole a car or robbed a grocery store we might consider it.

For elementary school kids: a free eight-month bus pass. College and university students full time over an eight-month term will get a discount. This will apply for Vancouver students only.

 
How would you reshape your municipality? The Georgia Straight is publishing articles on its Web site from mayoral candidates in Metro Vancouver. For more information, e-mail webeditor@straight.com.