I agree more attention should be focused on those who use prostitutes.  Education campaigns are over due, and it's high time men themselves start to shift male attitudes concerning prostitution.  However, criminalizing Johns is problematic for several reasons.  Primarily, because this approach doesn't seem to work in any other facet of what we call "vice".  And, it brings police in closer contact with the world of vice, which is good for no one.

Another problem where this focus could go very wrong is if it becomes seen as a panacea.  There are many factors that lead to prostitution, some more significant than others.  But all need attention.

The age gap between my eldest and youngest is 16 years.  In those 16 years, I've seen the "Barbie Doll" transformed into "Bratz Dolls".  While there used to be controversy around the emphasis on sexuality the now pedestrian "Barbie" portrayed,  we now have a no holds barred doll that attempts to idealize modes of appearance that we'd usually associate with prostitutes.

And, if we take away the dolls,  our kids can catch "Toddlers and Tiaras" on the missnomed "Learning Channel".  When they aren't watching music videos of fetishly attired preformers whose musical talents are, in some cases, non existant. How many "Pussy Cat Dolls" actually sing? One, maybe?  But it doesn't matter, as long as you can sell yourself sexually, you are a success!

This is what we are teaching our young women, and our young men about women.

When one takes a walk through the as yet politically unorganized neighborhoods to where the police have rousted prostitution,  take your eyes off the ladies and the johns, and look around you.  Check out the pay day loan places, the pawn shops, the tow trucks waiting for a call... for a tow?... in nieghborhoods where if one has a car, one fixes it yourself?  One cannot have an industry without a supporting cast.

And we arrive at the part that substance abuse has in all this. And, it's nice to blame our Latin American friends for cocaine, or the nefarious biker gangs for crystal meth.  But increasingly, you can thank big, untouchable pharma for niceties like Oxycontin, and our good friends at Health Canada that doesn't see that as a problem.

Yes, lets take a look at the whole neighbourhood.