“Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should” has passed over the lips of parents trying to teach good judgment to their children. That phrase goes beyond teaching the basics of knowing right from wrong because the phrase tries to explain the nuances of morality.

There are a number of people in society who seem as if they’ve given up making the difficult-right decisions in life when the easy-wrong alternative is so much more convenient. This thought process is now making its way into some elected legislator’s thoughts and deeds. Their mantra is “let’s make it legal, so that will make it right.”

The recreational use of marijuana has trended toward legalization for years, so there is no shock it will soon be sold in a store near you. There are some other bedrock laws of society that are on the cusp of change, too. Ten years ago few among us would have predicted; convicted felons voting and sitting on criminal court juries, illegal aliens receiving free college tuition ahead of the children of taxpayers, and convicted cop-killers released from prison early being hailed as martyrs.

There is another moral and legal wrong that is on its way to be ordained A-O.K. by lawmakers – prostitution. This is the point where the column makes a turn toward the seedy side.

One must constantly keep their ear to the ground to keep up with Albany’s events. The legalizing of prostitution is being kept under state house wraps, being shopped around and gauged for legislative support. If there are enough ‘yes’ straw votes it will probably pop up at the end of the state legislative session. That’s the time when real votes are taken on less popular legislation. So you have some names to go with this error in judgment, here are those who are sponsoring this bill; State Senators Jessica Ramos, Julia Salazar, Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried.

Proponents of legalizing sex-for-cash use the old gem of an argument “it’s a victimless crime.” Try telling the young girls in Jupiter, Florida they were NOT victims of Patriots owner, Robert Kraft and a couple of hundred other customers in the same week. Other feeble excuses are; we can tax it, making it legal will reduce sexually transmitted disease, sex workers can unionize, it will reduce violence against women, it will save police resources.

In support, Senator Salazr said “we believe New York can and should be the first to decriminalize sex work fully.” She says this as if ‘sex work’ is something New York is lacking and needs more of statewide. Maybe the senator would be proud to have her mom or daughter doing this for a living if she has a mom or daughter.

Already advocates are saying that prostitution is just like any other job where a man and a woman are alone, such as a barber, a massage therapist or a home caregiver. What a bunch of malarkey. Sex work is not a safe occupation for any woman or a man for that matter. None of those aforementioned occupations require the client and the worker to each disrobe to complete the work, even if the task is a massage or checking blood pressure and other vital signs.

Sex workers, whether legal or not, are at unusually high risk just by being alone with a stranger. Add to that they have to take off their clothes and physically submit to that stranger who is usually a male… we all know where this is going, so let’s just agree sex work is not just like any other job. And then there are the unintended consequences of legal prostitution such as dealing with slimy entrepreneurs, formerly known as pimps, who could employ vulnerable adults who may be mentally challenged. The more you think about this, the more it sounds like a bad idea.

If you think I have no experience policing prostitution, let me remind you about 30 years ago there was a 24-hour joint on East Main Street known as the Busy Bee. Adjacent to this place was a parking lot which nightly held 20 or more tractor trailers from all over the country waiting to unload cargo at the largest refrigerated warehouse in the world. Suffice to say, stuff happened in the wee hours of the morning that wasn’t pleasant.

If you don’t want to take my word that prostitution is bad, you can Google the 2014 study conducted by Harvard Law School which corroborates me and further adds that both legal and illegal prostitution increases human trafficking, also known as slavery. Hopefully, the recent arrest of Robert Kraft will skyline this topic enough that New York will stop trying to be at the forefront of statewide legal prostitution. Sex for cash, even if legal is still wrong – see if you can change my mind.