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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 26 September 2008

‘Sex for sale’ needs a pragmatic touch

• I HAVE the utmost respect and admiration for the work done by the POPPY Project (Shocking report reveals huge scale of ‘off-street’ sex industry, September 19).
However, commercial sex exists in the context of prohibitive legislation, which has exacerbated levels of exploitation.
The Green Party would decriminalise prostitution. This would have the immediate effect of bringing sex work within existing contract and employment law – protecting the interests of men and women who sell sex.
As with the drugs trade, prohibition has allowed criminal gangs to make vast profits from human misery. Surely it is time we had the courage to bring commercial sex out into the open, and regulate it in a sensitive and pragmatic way?
Tristan Smith
Green Party parliamentary candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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