Dildos, and Booze, and Cards, Oh My!

A new CEI paper by one of our fellows–okay, me–outlines the five dumbest product bans we could find in the United States. My personal (least) favorite is a Louisiana law that threatens children with $250 fines if they sell wildflower bouquets without having passed a florist’s exam. Admittedly, writing the paper was sort of like shooting fish in a barrel: the bans we picked are so clearly absurd that I simply can’t figure out how legislators have managed to pass them without snickering. (Although one, a ban on a medical device to assist with CPR, stems from regulation rather than statute.) In addition to the wildflower and CPR device bans, we also picked bans on playing online poker against friends, marketing sex toys–which, under the law could include a simple feather in sufficiently sexualized packaging–and drinking Sangria. To celebrate the bans, we’re planning a Sangria party co-sponsored with our friends at the America’s Future Foundation. Come on, it’ll be fun!