> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Time to start cashing in on sex and drug trades
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/time-to-start-cashing-in-on-sex-and-drug-trades/
- Published: 2006-10-10T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:05:54.000Z
- Author: David Pisarra
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*WHAT’S THE POINT?*

Infrastructure. It is the skeleton that keeps the body of state intact. It is comprised of our roadways, freeways, schools, interconnected sewer system, prison system, waterways and wetlands. The system is supported by thousands of men and women who work daily to maintain our roads and keep the state moving.

In economic terms, these items are called “Public Assets.” Like your car or home, these are physical assets that require maintenance to be kept in good condition, and occasionally, they need to be replaced. Public assets are owned by all of us, and they are called “public” because, individually, we could not afford them, and frankly, no one would want each of us to have to maintain our own sewer system. If we did have to do that, you can be certain that there would be one guy on the block who would do a lousy job of it and make the whole neighborhood sick.

But the image of one guy who isn’t doing his job, making the rest of us sick, is actually quite appropriate to what the situation currently is. We have a system that has been, not ignored really, just stuck in a corner waiting for someone to ask it to the dance.

Public assets are not sexy. They tend to be stinky, smelly, frequently dealing with the ugly aspects of life. They are the forgotten step-children of a society that would much rather focus on the hot-button issues of gay marriage and abortion rights than the budget cuts in a state that has too many children for its schools, too many prisoners for its prisons and too many cars for its roads.

The harsh reality is that we have a state that hasn’t really invested in itself for 50 years, and has grown far beyond the capacity of what its existing assets should reasonably be expected to handle. Los Angeles County has opened one new freeway in the past 30 years.

Our governor is about to ship our state’s prisoners to another state. Yes, they are our responsibility, and yes, we will have to pay for them, but the prison population is so great that the federal courts are ordering the governor to reduce the overcrowding.

I understand that these are people who have broken the law, and that they have lost many of the rights of citizenship, but that does not mean that we as a society have the right to abandon our humanity in how we deal with them.

The problem is we have strict laws that put people away for terms that are far beyond what is reasonable in light of their crimes. We have created a system that has no rehabilitation facility to retrain and re-educate these people, so when they are released, they have no new skills to survive with, so of course, they return to their old behavior.

Our legislators will claim that there is no money for new prisons, to repave roads, to build new freeways, invest in our sewer system and water supply, create new schools and develop a prison rehabilitation program. But like that old saw goes, “There’s never time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it over.”

When something does break, when a system fails, when a prison riot breaks out, when a roadway becomes too dangerous, there is money to fix it.

There’s a reason for this. There are funds established for expected expenses, and then there are funds that are set aside for “emergency” projects. Because the law works this way, if the government has a crisis on its hands, say a broken sewer that is spilling raw sewage into the street, the government must fix it immediately. The people who are working overtime will be paid because it was an emergency, and the crisis had to be dealt with. But if a planning engineer said two months before the sewer burst, “We should fix that section now, because it is going to break soon,” there would be no money in the budget to do so, because fixing a ‘not yet broken sewer’ is very low priority.

We live in a state that has become overcrowded,overdriven and underinvested in.The governor will propose a bond measure,and the people will deny it, as they should. Bonds are good for investors, which means that they are bad for the borrower — in this case,it’s you and me who have to repay those bonds.

Our legislators will say there is no money unless we raise taxes, and no one wants that or will re-elect someone who has raised their taxes. What is the solution?

I say we put away this false morality that got these bozos elected in the first place, and start to focus on the morals of what we as a society really need. The Moral Morons who control elections these days seem to think it is okay to stop a woman from having an abortion, but it is okay to house people in overcrowded, unsanitary cages.

We need to face the reality that our society has changed and it is not the same society as when Ma and Pa Kettle drove a covered wagon here. It is time to throw out the Bible Belt mentality and get down to business to make this state some money.

Sex, drugs, gambling and bars need to be legal, all the time. Before the hate letters get sent, let me state the following: It should be regulated and taxed, just like cigarettes and liquor sales are now.

I’m not saying that the whorehouse should be next to the schoolyard. But there is nothing wrong with passing some zoning laws and allowing sex workers to have a clean, comfortable, safe, controlled environment to ply their trade. Why do we shut down massage parlors that give a little extra? Who is being hurt here? The taxpayers whose roads have holes large enough for a Hummer to break an axle in, that’s who.

Drug use should be controlled the same way they do in Amsterdam. It is taxed and those taxes go to pay for public assets. Gambling seems to be a rather popular pastime, and it’s making huge dollars for Nevada and the Indian tribes. Why are we letting all that money go out of state? Same goes for people who want to drink. Bars should be open 24 hours a day, in particular zones.

As a society, we have the money. We just need to get it redirected, back into the public coffers. Since we lack the political will to increase our taxes, let’s find a creative way to achieve our goals... and have a little fun along the way.

David Pisarra is a business development lawyer in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 10, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101006.pdf?ref=smdp.com)