The current Lamar Odom controversy (ex basketball star and ‘estranged’ husband of media star Khloe Kardashian found unresponsive at a Nevada brothel but presently-fortunately-coming out of his coma) has once again brought attention to the debate of legal vs. illegal prostitution. As many bandy about exactly what substances-illegal or not-Lamar had in his system when he went to seek his pleasure, there are just as many taking up the cry once again that brothels are veritable dens of iniquity where terrible things occur.

Forgetting the fact that anyone with the means and money can pretty much get whatever they want in America-be what they want legal or not-the fact is that brothels are allowed, by law, to operate in the state of Nevada. The law is specific in the state on a county by county basis where as, any county in Nevada with a population under 700,000 can license a brothel. A large percentage of these counties are rural areas, seeing men, couples and women seeking their escort’s services usually outside of big city limits (yes, even outside of Las Vegas itself).

Moral conundrums aside, legal brothels give benefits to their sex workers illegal escorts do not enjoy: Nevada law requires their legal brothels to test their prostitutes regularly for various sexually communicable diseases; escorts working in legal brothels have a safe environment to see their clients; customers and sex worker can set appoints via the net, recommendations or a simple drive out to the brothel. With health concerns addressed, safety for both escort and client assured and contact between worker and client easy-and safely-vetted and facilitated legalized prostitution seems to benefit all.

Knowing that this service is one that has existed throughout human history and many more men (and women) other than famous ex NBA stars seeking the services of escorts daily it seems the question here should be more one of, ‘when’ should we legalize prostitution across the country and less one of, ‘why’ we shouldn’t.