They have floating casinos, where gamblers board in port, the boat goes into international waters, and everyone starts gambling. Also, other boats act like ferries, bringing gamblers to and from the mothership.
Gambling equipment is not illegal in itself, so as long as all the slot machines are locked up and nobody is betting, the boat came come back into port for maintenance or to host non-gambling events in port.
So, why not extend this to coke and hookers? There would be a boat that stays permanently offshore that is stocked with pure Columbian cocaine, the boat remained in international waters the entire trip. The boat goes offshore, everyone does lots of coke and gambling, it’s all legal. Similarly, women above the age of consent boarded the boat in port and were plying their trade as prostitutes while the boat was out in international waters. It’s not illegal to have genitals, and as long as any sex acts are ‘freebies’ when the boat returns, it’s all legal.
Note that I’m not in favor of doing this, I’m simply wondering if it would be legal or not. Surely international law doesn’t cover vices, and cocaine is a drug used worldwide in medicine, surely there’s not international agreement that using it recreation-ally is an outright crime.
It’s not like ships in international waters are in lawless space, not subject to any jurisdiction; they are still under the jurisdiction of the flag state. The “international” in “international waters” doesn’t mean no law applies at all, it means there is no coastal state that could claim jurisdiction competing with that of the flag state. Views on gambling differ from state to state, but cocaine is internationally frowned upon, and a flag state that wouldn’t interfere with your pleasure craft would soon find itself under severe pressure from other countries to stop what you’re doing.
Now you might be tempted to stay entirely flagless, but that would not be advisable. A flagless vessel is considered an outlaw in the law of the sea community, and any country would have jurisdiction to seize it (much as every country has jurisdiction to combat piracy).
So if the flag state were one of convenience where cocaine and hooking and blackjack are all legal, then this *would *work, right? Drugs are semi-legal in Portugal, though they’d frown upon a boat full of a what is basically a rolling orgy with clouds of white powder in the air everywhere as I am imagining it. (the airplane scene in Wolf of Wall Street)
The ship is going to have to be supplied by someone from somewhere. That means at some point the supplier (and the supply) will be in some nation’s territory. The local authorities could simply board and search every ship and shoot down every drone while they’re still in territorial waters.
Even a rogue state is going to be interested in huge supplies of cocaine leaving their ports, if only because the government wants to be sure it’s getting its cut.
From where? You’d have to source your coke from a country where it’s legal to manufacture it (and of course it would also need to be legal in the country where the ship is registered).
What if you grew it on the ocean? Admittedly this sounds rather expensive, though maybe you could genetically engineer the coca plant for higher yields or make the drug using genetically engineered yeast…
Schnitte already answered that. If you’re a “freeman on the ocean”, then instead of being subject to the whims of one government, you’re subject to the whims of all of them.
Well, it would have to be a country that has legalized drugs and recreational use. You’d protect it with armed security and keeping the actual drugs in a locked vault. Sure, 10-20 men with AR-15s aren’t going to be able to stop pirates that show up in a destroyer, but it probably would be enough security if the boat were off the coast of Georgia or something.
I mean usually vice does pay, and coke and hookers are very expensive commodities. Neither can be obtained easily in high quality forms inside the USA, because they are illegal, and illegal goods merchants have little incentive for quality control.
So you could offer a boat full of the hottest hookers and pure uncut Columbian and for less cost than it costs stateside. Park that boat outside of New York Harbor or LA and let the good times roll.