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Nearly 1500 calls were made to the national human traffic resource center last year from Florida…the third most in the country. As Matt Galka tells us, lawmakers are continuing to clamp down on the human trade.

Katarina Rosenblatt is a human trafficking survivor.

“In Miami at 13 I first was recruited at a hotel, and I escaped, and then I was recruited again at my middle school because I still had the vulnerabilities of coming from an abusive home,” she told a House committee on Wednesday.

She has gone on to earn her Ph.D. and has written a book about her human trafficking ordeal.  She spoke before a House panel Wednesday about the need to put more safeguards for human trafficking in at the school level. Lawmakers were receiving an update on a bill signed last year.

Representative Gayle Harrell says there is still work to be done.

“These pimps are very ingenius in what they do, they go out there and recruit young, vulnerable kids, and we need to address that problem as well,” said Rep. Harrell (R-Stuart).

One proposal floating around the Capitol is imposing a “sin” tax on adult entertainment establishments.

Representative Lori Berman is backing the idea. A $10 dollar surcharge would be put on customers at strip clubs with funds being directed toward human trafficking programs.

“We have an obligation and we have determined that we are going to help victims of human trafficking, and in terms of getting a source of funding for victims of human trafficking, it obviously makes more sense if you use something that has helped contribute to the problem,” said Rep. Berman (D-Boynton Beach).

Berman says there is a connection between the clubs and human trafficking, but the legislature will look into it further before making any major moves. Sex trafficking leads the amount of Florida human trafficking cases by about 4 to 1.