Colorado lawmakers have decided it's time to crackdown on ... johns. Yes, members of the Colorado State Senate are burning the midnight oil working on a bill that proposes (much!) higher fines for men convicted of soliciting sex from adult prostitutes. The fine would be raised from $75 to $10,000, and Senate President Brandon Shaffer, the bill's sponsor, says proceeds from the fine would be used to cover the cost of “john schools” in municipalities that plan to use them.

John schools? We'll just call them the “Scared Straight” program for men who buy sex from prostitutes.

Some Colorado lawmakers believe the reason these men keep seeking out prostitutes for sex is because they don't know the reality of the situation. They say johns think these women are shipped in from other countries, and if they knew that the vast majority (99 percent, lawmakers claim) of these girls they're paying to bed are from their own backyard, they'd stop doing it.

“What we really want to have people do is go to these schools and be so transformed by the seriousness of this that they don't do it again,” said Boulder attorney Beth Klein, a prominent advocate for john schools.

We can't help but think the situation would be less dire if the profession were legal.