FreedomsAdvocate.com

After reading about our new Attorney General Pam Bondi declaring a state emergency--and outlawing--bath salts here in Florida as a containing a 'dangerous substance,' I wrote the following letter to our new Governor Rick Scott and my two State Representatives. If you aren't aware of the issue you can read up about it here and here. This is an open letter, so feel free to use it or any part of it:

I was wondering if you might have a chat with our new Attorney General Bondi regarding the proper role of government. 

I recently read in the news that bath salts can contain the chemical compound dubbed MDPV (methylenedioxypyrovalerone). Apparently, some people can use this as a mind altering drug. It is only contained in some bath salt products and is thus available through normal businesses. The potential beneficial effect of MDPV to bath salts is not known, but off hand, I doubt that any viable business would add it unless it improved the product. 

One of the comments I read again and again was that it contains '5 dangerous chemicals which are not treated as controlled substances by current law'. I did not know that it was the responsibility of the state to test every one of the trillions of possible combinations of chemicals compounds to determine if they could possibly be misused. I would think that since all chemical compounds could possibly be misused by individuals, it is a cost-benefit trade-off that should rightly be left to us. Not to the State--be it federal, state or local.

As an individual over 50, I have used bath salts. So has my wife. Now I understand that because my elected officials think they can make decisions on my behalf better than I can myself, it is a third-degree felony for me to even possess bath salts. So, because I buy some bath salts, I should be denied my right to vote? I should be made a criminal? Just because some individuals have chosen to misuse certain chemical compounds, I and my wife are now made to suffer? I don't agree. I think that those who misuse it and in doing so harm--or threaten to harm--another citizen should be held responsible for that behavior. As I recall, that is governed by current law. 

Criminalizing the possession of a chemical compound that could potentially be misused is a slippery-slope toward totalitarianism. Gasoline can be used for many purposes; some good, some bad. Why has the State not outlawed gasoline? Because those in office at the time decided that the cost-benefit trade-off balanced in favor of legalization? It is unethical--if not to say simply impossible--for the State to legislate based on *causes* of behavior; it can only legislate on specific behaviors, themselves.

And where exactly is the proxy to make cost-benefit trade-offs for citizens via law enumerated in the Florida Constitution? I did not vote for you to be my parent. Nor did I vote for Pam Bondi to be my parent. The State is there to protect my rights from violation, not to restrict my freedom. Thus, the state's proper role in this is at most to inform the citizens of any potential danger. Nothing more.

As Bondi's ruling is only temporary, please let it expire without further action.