Sex and Drugs

First the Reising case, and then those two old ladies from the Hampshire WI on Channel Four last night. How much more?

No, of course we shouldn't legalise brothels, taxing their income and thus turning each and every one of us into a pimp. Instead, by all means let it be made a criminal offence for any person above the age of consent (which should be raised to 18) to buy, or attempt to buy, sex. And let it also be made be made a criminal offence, with an equal sentence, for any person above that age to sell, or attempt to sell, sex. Since the former are usually men and the latter usually women, are women morally and intellectually equal to men, or not?

And no, of course we shouldn't legalise drugs, taxing the income therefrom and thus turning each and every one of us into a drug dealer. Instead, we should reclassify as Class A the extremely dangerous substance that is practically the universal gateway into the drug subculture, and we should accompany that with a general crackdown on the possession of drugs, including a mandatory sentence of three months for a second offence, six months for a third offence, one year for a fourth offence, and so forth.

Meanwhile, Michael Gove today attacks "lads' mags". He is right, even if those of us increasingly feeling our age are almost heartened to learn that something so utterly of the Nineties is still part of popular culture at all. But Gove and others need to face the fact that both those publications and the lifestyle that they encourage are simply the operation of their own beloved "free" market, which cannot be in goods and services generally but not in alcohol, gambling, drugs, prostitution and pornography.

The commercialisation of sexuality in general and of women's bodies in particular is a vast social and cultural problem. In this fortieth anniversary year of Humanae Vitae, the only really good thing that Pope Paul VI ever did, we need to acknowledge that the root of this problem is the poisoning of women in order to make them permanently available for the sexual gratification of men.

We might also consider that even the World Health Organisation, hardly a Vatican puppet, describes Natural Family Planning as 99.8% effective (how could it not be?). But, of course, it can only be done by a faithful married couple acting as such. So it is out of the question. Isn't it?