LogFAQs > #927420667

Mead posted...

something shouldnt be completely decriminalized in some states but in other states in our country it will land you in prison for years

Unfortunately, the alternative is to just make every facet of life a federal concern and eliminate "state rights" entirely, but that creates an entirely new host of problems.

Generally, the idea of different states having different standards really only becomes a problem if there's a huge difference in penalties (like you say, where possession of a substance in one state might be perfectly legal but somewhere else it's a multi-year prison sentence, where just forgetting you have something in your bag when you fly can fuck you), or when they're geographically close.

Like how, back in the early 80s, NJ had a drinking age of 21 while NY had a drinking age of 18, so every week hordes of teenagers would drive to NY, get drunk then drive home (which is a major reason why the federal government basically strong-armed the federal drinking age of 21 on all of the states, to prevent that sort of thing). Or similarly, how fireworks were illegal in NJ but legal to sell in PA, so every 4th of July thousands of people would just cross the border to buy fireworks and smuggle them home (which has, after decades, finally resulted in both NJ and PA lightening up their laws regarding fireworks).
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