Thankfully, fallen NBA star Lamar Odom is alive, although he has a long road to go if he even pulls through.
While doctors believe that he will recover, Lamar Odom will probably suffer permanent brain damage, as a result of him overdosing on liquor and herbal Viagra pills in a Las Vegas, Nevada brothel. Odom spent almost $80,000 during a four-day party at the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada last week with two sex workers, Ryder Cherry, and Monica Monroe.
The two women found him choking on his mucus and called 911. Had Lamar been with illegal prostitutes in another state, there’s no doubt he would have died.
A good example of this is the recent case of prostitute Alix Tichelman, who was sentenced to six years in prison for her role in the death of a Google executive. Tichelman and Forrest Timothy Hayes were partying and having sex on his yacht when she injected him with a dose of heroin. Hayes passed out, and Tichelman left without seeking help.
It’s a similar circumstance, but a stark contrast in reaction from the prostitutes involved in both cases.
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| Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada, where sales are UP since Lamar Odom’s overdose at the brothel. |
“The current laws enforced by the U.S. Government do nothing to curb violence toward sex workers and instead turn victims into criminals,” said Michael Heckle in an opinion piece for Iowa State Daily. “We need laws that protect sex workers. When looking at the issue of prostitution, one must put moral precognitions in a corner and look at the issue from a real-world standpoint.”
Even The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report in 2012 urging countries around the world to legalize prostitution. Legalized sex work has helped decrease the risk for both Johns and prostitutes in countries like The Netherlands, Germany in New Zealand.
In addition to safety laws for sex workers, legalizing the trade has helped to reduce the numbers of human trafficking victims in the countries.
“By creating an atmosphere of illegality and shame, the government has destroyed the lives of millions of sex workers,” Heckle said. “The United States needs laws and regulations in place that will protect the dignity and health of sex workers…”
Love Ranch owner Dennis Hof agrees with Heckle’s observations. In Nevada, Hof is considering a run for Senate and his main platform will be sex trafficking. He hopes someday that prostitution will be legal across the country.
“Unless you get the politics behind you, the politicians behind you, it’s never gonna happen,” Dennis Hof told Vice in July. “Never gonna change state law even though it’s out of hand. It’s so out of hand; you get people like Eliot Spitzer, who’s running the state, and one of his big issues was prostitution and being hard on it and the pimps. Then they catch him using a prostitute—that’s the world’s greatest hypocrite.”
In the meantime, Lamar Odom has been transferred to a rehab center in Los Angeles, but his kidneys are currently failing, and he might need a transplant. At least he still has a chance, and we can thank the two sex workers at the Love Ranch, Ryder Cherry and Monica Monroe.
