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Everybody talks about the mainstreaming of pornography and its cousin “erotica”. Talking freely about our sexuality is a good thing. No disputing that. But what about people whose ideas about sexuality are, well, creepy, and whose sexual behavior may very well be criminal? I’m talking about rape, child rape, and human trafficking.
It’s one thing to play the victim or the perpetrator in a nonconsentual consent fantasy scene, and another issue entirely to rape another person, especially a child. A postpubescent teenager under 18 (age of consent) of either sex is considered a child under the law.
The perpepetual 24/7 365 sexual environment in the digital world has left people jaded and sceptical about any sort of criminality taking place in the real world. They couldn’t possibly be doing that, could they? Then Theodore McCarrick is exposed, next comes Richard Bransfield, allegations swirl around the late Cardinals Bernadin and Spelman. And that’s just the top tier of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile over in the secular world, the exposé has just begun with NXIVM and Jeffrey Epstein. Both of these cases have extremely wealthy, well-connected and influential people associated with them, on the periphery, at least for now. The investigative journalists who were ridiculed and discounted just a few months ago, like the Miami Herald reporters and Mike Cernovich are now being taken seriously.
And the criminality blends in quite well with amateur hedonists, the swingers, the routinely curious, and just plain old erotic fantasizers. Like Waldo in the Where’s Waldo pictures, the criminals can hide in plain sight.
It used to be the issue of missing children was written off as noncustodial parents kidnapping their own children. I’m not denying those occurrences. But there are something like 800,000 children kidnapped every year.
A porous border invites all forms of human trafficking. Organized crime gets involved in enterprises, which by their very nature are illegal and/or morally repugnant. With cannabis on the fast track to legalisation, expect to see more human sex trafficking, of both sexes, and of children in particular.
Dispatches From Dystopia 
I’m curious as to what the correlation is between human trafficking and marijuana legalization from a logic standpoint. I’m not in favor of its’ legalization, by the way. I voted against it every chance I got, which was a lot in CA.
I watched a true story the other day about human trafficking. A woman who was fortunate to get out at all, let alone 2 days, told her story with as much detail as possible. The statistic of $30 billion annually and staggering numbers of women and children were sickening. Huge issues which get brushed aside because it’s “invisible” to the average person.
The same holds true for children brides in the US. 200,000 forced children marriages in the course of a few years as recent as 2012 when the movie I watched was made. So many look outside of the US for these things to happen with no idea it’s happening right here at an insane rate with no options or help for these little girls.
Here is the correlation. When a formerly proscribed market is legalised, the criminals in the formerly illegal business have to find another illegal enterprise to exploit to replace the lost revenue. The best example is the end of Prohibition and the rise of heroin trafficking within a decade of its end. If marijuana is legalized look for more trafficking in other drugs and, of course, more humans, Smuggling is smuggling.
And I agree about cannabis. It isn’t harmless and shouldn’t be legalized.
If marshmallows were banned, there would be a black market within 24 hours. Now it’s patently clear dangerous things and heinous acts must remain illegal. Still there is only so much libertarianism that a healthy society can take
My wife went to Continuing Ed meeting for her medical coding group. They, quite peripherally. stated that the local upscale mall is a major site for human trafficking.
Quite peripherally? Like non-chalant.
I agree with everything you said except one thing.
If it weren’t for marijuana I would probably not be live today. Nothing else manages my intense pain and I can’t take opiods or other narcotics because they all filter through the liver. So I can’t agree with you on the point. I don’t use it socially or for fun although I do also use it for anxiety and insomnia.
Controlling access to a powerful but beneficial drug is done all the time. Legalisation of cannabis for recreational use is a very slippery slope. There will be problems and there are already.
Well. That’s one side. It’s also had some great benefits where it has been legalized. Lower drunk driving rates. Lower opioid rates. Lower suicide rates. Even lower pot use from juveniles; interestingly. But I can say from my own experience with pharmaceutical companies that I prefer them to not get involved. Thy are trying to synthesize the active ingredients. The natural form works wonderful. But there isn’t. Large enough profit margin because of legalization. Sooooo we have to see who sponsors these views we hear in the media. Most media is propaganda; unfortunately.
Peripherally, as it was mentioned but not the driving topic.
So bizarre how things so traumatizing and noteworthy and monumental are just a small anecdote.
It is a serious problem. Medical coders are people who code treatments and test performed on patients. Not saying human trafficking isn’t serious. It just falls out of the medical coders professional domain,
I can see that of course. Just seems to be such an odd thing to casually mention.