Guest columnists Tom Wetzel and Denise DeBiase are certified law enforcement executives with close to 60 years of combined police experience.

Having collectively been police officers for over half a century, we, like cops everywhere, have seen and felt plenty of the damage caused by criminal activity. It is easy to wonder what more we can do to prevent or measurably reduce it.

The phrase We have met the enemy, and they are us is a good starting point.

What we mean by that is quite simple. Our appetite for pleasure can often be found in the form of vice crimes. These personal choices can have mind-boggling consequences for so many others. There may be debate on whether these types of activities should even be classified as crimes, as they often seem to be victimless on their face. But dig deeper, and you will see that these actions create a victim count beyond measure.

Drug use and prostitution are two such vices that both of us know have caused incalculable pain and have resulted in far-reaching criminal activity and suffering.

What would happen if we could find a way to reduce or eradicate our weaknesses toward certain behaviors like these? What if we turned off the spigot on criminal profits because our collective self-discipline suppressed demand? How much could we reduce crime not just in America, but across the entire world?

Anyone who has watched movies has probably seen a major motion picture that dramatized the life of real or fictionalized drug traffickers and how rich they got off the addictions of others. And now we are watching the loss of life in staggering numbers due to heroin and fentanyl overdoses.

How do we get people to stop? It is a complex matter, but we could start with a deeper understanding about how much suffering is caused when we decide to find pleasure or relieve pain through a mind-altering substance.

That same suffering is also caused when someone decides to solicit sex. Many may argue that there is a significant demand that must be met. But the woman who prostitutes herself isnt doing it for fun. Shes doing it for money. But that cash has a huge price tag, which includes exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, cruel physical violence, addiction to drugs and a battered soul.

Were certain these women didnt wake up one day and decide this was the best thing for them to do.

How do women who prostitute themselves mentally recover? For the most part, many wont, or the healing may take decades. As a society, we havent helped them enough. We need to find opportunities to help women avoid the poisonous siren call of prostitution, as well as provide opportunities to heal and nurture these exploited souls.

Another way is to find innovative ways to stifle the demand and let these customers understand that their actions are caustic and burn many around them.

We know that suppressing desires for pleasure or for pain avoidance is easier said than done. But an empathetic society will recognize that it holds the power within its individual members to snuff out so much criminal activity, simply by making them more aware that choices have consequences beyond the person looking in the mirror.

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What if we turned off the spigot of grief?: Tom Wetzel and Denise DeBiase - cleveland.com