IT'S the oldest profession in the world and they won't make me give it up.

I don't do any harm to the people who live near where I work.

In fact, if the truth be known, prostitutes offer a service that every town and city needs.

Many men have very high sex drives that need satisfying - and through the use of a prostitute they can do so. If they don't, they can end up frustrated, moody and can even turn to violence to satisfy their needs.

So why is it a crime when two consenting adults agree a fee for sex?

And while many of the girls may take drugs, many don't.

Some of the girls I know are working to get through college and university. Some just want the money to buy expensive clothes which other jobs won't let them.

And there's a hypocrisy here - it is legal for a girl to sell sex from her home, so long as she's on her own. But if she goes out to do it, she can be arrested. Why is one acceptable and the other not? We're not dealing crack to children. We're not vandalising buildings or beating people up.

We're certainly not harming anyone so why do we get picked on by the police.

Have they nothing better do? Or are we just easy targets?

I for one will carry on. All the police will do is move us on to another area, putting us at more risk because we don't know the surroundings.

And as for people saying that children shouldn't be seeing us out and about, the majority of girls come out at night - when children should be inside, not out causing trouble.

Name and address supplied.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.