Phuket Gazette Poll Results Legalize Prostitution

[gotlost]

-- Phuket Gazette 10/1 Phuket, Thailand: Saturday, October 10, 2009

Phuket Gazette Poll Results: Legalize prostitution

PHUKET: Almost half of Phuket Gazette readers believe prostitution should be legalized and properly regulated, according to the last Gazette Poll.

While a majority of expat respondents (51%) favor legalization, just 21% of Thai respondents did.

This is just one of many differences in opinion revealed by the poll, which provoked an avalanche of feedback from readers.

The poll asked respondents to choose a statement that best summed up their views on prostitution in Phuket.

In total 1,554 readers cast votes in the non-scientific survey.

Of these, 44.5% agreed with the statement "We can never get rid of prostitution, so we should legalize it and get it regulated."

The second-most popular statement was "Prostitution brings tourists to Phuket and benefits the economy. The status quo should be retained."

Just less than a third of respondents agreed with the statement.

Roughly the same proportion of Thais (32%), expats (33%) and tourists (29%) were in agreement here.

Third-most popular was the statement, "Prostitution damages Phuket's reputation as a high-end tourist destination. The authorities should end it."

Here, 16% of Thais, 10% of expats and 16% of tourists were in agreement.

Finally, the least popular of the options was "Buying sex is wrong. The authorities should put a stop to it," which was supported by 11.4% of readers overall.

But while just 6% of expats and 13% of tourists agreed with this, almost a third (31%) of Thais did.

Frank Peterson, a Phuket-based reader, agreed that the sex industry was bad for the 'family' tourism market.

"I am not opposed to the sex industry, but feel uncomfortable when it is too close to the 'straight' holiday market," he wrote.

His solution would be to move the island's entire sex industry into Phuket City.

"Phuket City would benefit because it would be busy at night," he wrote. "Only the property owners on Bangla Road would reject it out of hand..."

Writing from Las Vegas, reader Buzz Thurber commented: "The exchange of money for sexual activity which transpires in Patong should be more fondly referred to as a financial exchange for a fun and romantic time."

"I would feel cheated if the laws regarding prostitution were strictly enforced in Phuket," he wrote.

Keep your comments clean and civilized and the mods may let us comments if not I'll start the count down 10..

[Svenn]

Only 21% of Thai respondents favored legalization, yet I've heard the statistic somewhere that like 75% of thai males have paid for sex, and like 50% lost their virginity in a brothel.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Only 21% of Thai respondents favored legalization, yet I've heard the statistic somewhere that like 75% of thai males have paid for sex, and like 50% lost their virginity in a brothel.

We don't do speculation here.

[anothertorres]

sure we do

[mrtoad]

Only 21% of Thai respondents favored legalization, yet I've heard the statistic somewhere that like 75% of thai males have paid for sex, and like 50% lost their virginity in a brothel.

We don't do speculation here.

No, it's all factual here.

[DP25]

His solution would be to move the island's entire sex industry into Phuket City.

"Phuket City would benefit because it would be busy at night," he wrote. "Only the property owners on Bangla Road would reject it out of hand..."

I'm not a Bangla Road property owner and I reject it out of hand. Keep the Patong craziness in Patong and not the city where the majority of Phuket families live, work, shop, and go to school. Phuket Town students do not need to be harassed and groped by mobs of drunken farang on their way to school in the morning.

[IanForbes]

His solution would be to move the island's entire sex industry into Phuket City.

"Phuket City would benefit because it would be busy at night," he wrote. "Only the property owners on Bangla Road would reject it out of hand..."

I'm not a Bangla Road property owner and I reject it out of hand. Keep the Patong craziness in Patong and not the city where the majority of Phuket families live, work, shop, and go to school. Phuket Town students do not need to be harassed and groped by mobs of drunken farang on their way to school in the morning.

As much as I favour prostitution being legalized and regulated, you have a good point. Most men who drink to excess lose all sense of reason and can't differentiate between a working gal and some nice woman out for a walk, or a girl coming home from school. The end result is usually nasty. There is already an I can't see what is happening attitude in Thailand that seems to work okay. It happens just as much in the western world but with far more self righteous bigotry involved.

[Huey]

I think they should legalize it and tax it in license form. Like you need a ho license if you open a go go bar or a massage based on the floor space of the establishment. And prostitutes need a license too, renewable maybe every 90 days or so, and the price should include blood tests. You got AIDS, your out. The money raised from it (once crooked politicians got their cut) could go to orphanages and to funding free AIDS treatment.

Idealistic and it would definitely require enforcement, but a nice idea all the same.

[michaelbutcher]

God this forum's going down hill - I know, you're all thinking that's not possible right? Pulling readers' letters from LAST WEEK's Phuket Gazette about the same old boring topics with the same old boring responses. No wonder Lopburi99 threw in his hat, no doubt along with many others.

Here's a challenge - Post something more original. For the Love of God...

[webfact]

This topic isn't going to get better and it appears to me like a dead-end street.

So we'll let it close.

//CLOSED//