and, holly austin smith, a former victim herself, who now advocates for victims of sex trafficking. also the author of "walking prey: how america's youth are vulnerable to sex slavery." and welcome you both. holly austin smith let me start with you. you were a victim at the age of 14. tell us briefly what happened to you? >> sure i was a young teen victim. i was 14. i was confused angry depressed like many young teenagers i was struggling with the transition between middle school and high school. and i met a man at my local shopping mall who turned out to be a pimp. he convinced me to run away from home with ideas of being a model or a music artist but within hours of running away from home i learned the truth. that he was a pimp and he forced me into prostitution in atlantic city new jersey. >> woodruff: bradley myles her story is just so tough to hear. and i think many americans hear about this. this doesn't really happen in this country. it's kind of an invisible crime. how wide spread is it? >> oy think that most people really do believe this is happening overseas but there is a

holly smith has been to drink tastings before. but only at breweries and wineries. so she didn't know what to expect at st. george spirits. >> we were talking, you know, i wonder how they -- if they run it the same as like a waynery. >> reporter: you still smell, sip and savor but they can't sell bottles like in wine country. >> taste it and say i want that. >> the way things are written now in the laws are patently unfair towards distillers. >> reporter: st. george owner lance winters says the law which dates back to prohibition hurts business in what's supposed to be a booming industry even if this distillery has found a long, long way around the law. they do sell alcohol here but how it gets here is part of the problem. they send their alcohol 65 miles away to their distributedder in morgan hill and then a third party buys it and it comes back to alameda. 130 miles roundtrip so the bottles can be sold 10 feet away from where they're made. that's why some state lawmakers introduced a bill allowing customers to buy three bottles at spirits tastings rooms and into t

consider the case of holly smith. when holly was just 14 years of age, she met a man at the local shopping mall in new jersey. with all the innocence of youth holly confided in this man the fears and anxieties of her adolescence, telling him how nervous she was to begin high school. holly could never have guessed that the man she had just met the man she had just trusted with her deepest feelings were a human trafficker trained to emotionally lure young girls into prostitution. this trafficker told me a life of glamour and excitement if she agreed to run away with him. holly took the bait. she ran away with the man who would later abuse and intimidate her into prostitution. she was one of the many victims of child sex trafficking. holly eventually escaped this nightmare and even had the courage to tell her story the at a judiciary committee hearing on human trafficking last month. but many are not so lucky. mr. president, we must do more to help victims like holly. we must do more to combat the evils of human trafficki

i think of a victim that i've talked with holly austin smith. she's just 14 years old when she ran away from home. she quickly became a victim of human trafficking. she met a man at a shopping mall who told her she was pretty and promised he would give her a glamorous life in california. remember she's 14 years old. instead, he sold her for sex. the first man she was sold to commented she reminded him of his own granddaughter. but then he paid $200 to rape her. thankfully holly escaped has rebuilt her life. she's now a fierce advocate to end all forms of human trafficking because she knows what happens in human trafficking. but many are not so lucky. the physical and psychological scars of being bought and sold, of being raped management imtimes a night by different men are devastating. and this terrible crime destroys lives. as we consider legislation to combat human trafficking, we have to remember holly and the thousands of other vulnerable and victimized children she represents. and we must do everything we can to keep it from happening in t

the amendment's going to help runaways like holly austin smith smith. she was just 14 years old when she was lured away from home by a man who promised her a glamorous life in california. instead, he sold this 14-year-old for sex. she told her devastating story to the senate judiciary committee last month. both senator grassley and i were there and others and heard it. i was certainly moved by her words and her call to action. she told us that to protect girls like her then we must say that policies on prevention should be one of our highest priorities. and i agree. that's why senator collins and i are offering this amendment. of course we should have the ability to go after somebody who's committed these crimes. but how much better off especially for the victim, if we can stop the crime from happening in the first place. if we can do things to help people like this 14-year-old we can stop it from happening in the first place. how much better off we are. and too many of the runaway and homeless youth in this country have no place to go, they have no pla

in 1992, holly austin smith ran away from home and was forced into a sex trafficking ring the summer before her freshman year of high school. within hours of running away, 14-year-old holly was sold for $200 to a man who wanted her for sex because he said she reminded him of his granddaughter. when police eventually found holly, still only a child scared and confused, as you can only imagine they treated her as a criminal, not as a victim. too often these children who are not of the age of consent are treated as child prostitutes. as many of us who have worked on this issue for some time know, there is no such thing as a child prostitute. if you are not of the age of consent, you cannot consent. you cannot agree to be used in such a horrific way. these are children who are bought and sold for sex plain and simple, and as nauseating as that truth is. as malika powerfully said during our hearing she said there should be no difference between raping a child and paying to rape a child. now the individuals who commit these crimes, not just the people who traffic in them, but the people who