Why not legalize prostitution?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-md.ho.britton30jan30,0,5706546.story?track=mostemailedlink

Here in Howard County we just had a young woman commit suicide after being arrested and hailed into court because she was entrapped into a situation where she supposedly took money from someone who was supposedly a consenting adult in exchange for apparent sexually-related activity. It's true that this woman seemed to have other problems and who knows what led her to do what she did at the end.
Anyway, do we as a society really need to prosecute or persecute someone who engages in consensual sex for profit with another adult? I would hope not.
Sex can be a dangerous thing these days and I don't think there can be a thing like too much sex education in the schools. But do we really want big brother monitoring or proscribing the private affairs of adults when it's all consensual and no minors are involved? Is this what we want from our lawmakers and law enforcers? Does the fact that money changes hands make it all different? Really?
Enough of prudery as far as I'm concerned. Let's abolish these puritanical laws and have our law enforcers concentrate on real problems and real crimes.