FSP president to legislature: ‘Stop writing words on pieces of paper and thinking anyone gives a crap!’
This week, the New Hampshire House voted to ban the sale and possession of synthetic drugs. The legislation follows action by Gov. Maggie Hassan last year declaring a state of emergency after 44 drug overdoses were linked to one of the synthetic drugs.
The bill had broad bipartisan support. 92 Republicans joined 117 Democrats in the 233-120 vote. Opposition to the measure came primarily from Republican libertarians. The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance labeled the measure “anti-Liberty.” The NHLA Gold Standard declared, “In a free society, individuals should not be punished for peaceful activities which harm only themselves.”
Free State Project president Carla Gericke bluntly summed up the libertarian response. “Stop writing words on pieces of paper and thinking anyone gives a crap!” she wrote on Facebook.
“Seriously, I wish the state would just turn itself into a giant marketing machine and *advocate* for the things they want. Instead of punishing people for victimless crimes (which really only punishes the taxpayer),” Gericke wrote, “if you feel so strongly about something that ‘there outta be a law,’ just try to convince people not to do dumb things instead.”
In fact, the legislation banning the substances does include an educational outreach provision, requiring the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery to recommend policies to educate the public on the drugs’ dangers.
Rep. Ed Comeau (R-Brookfield) thinks even that is outside the state’s purview. “The state mandates and preaches to you not to do many things but people continue to make bad choices,” he said in a speech on the House floor. “I share in your frustration but i believe the more the state tries to regulate in this manner the more people lose the ability to understand that their actions have consequences.”
“The more the state steps in as mother, as father, the further we move away from personal responsibility. Most of you here are from a generation whose primary judge were your parents. Most of you here are from a generation who feared consequences,” he continued. “Today it is the state that is telling your children not to sniff glue, not to smoke incense laced with chemicals. What’s happened to us?”
Writing on Facebook, the first-term lawmaker, who moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project, described the synthetic drug ban as an example of profound government overreach.
“[T]he State will do everything to stay relevant. [It] the State cannot reach into someones soul and stop them from destroying themselves. But, this is not what it wants,” Comeau explained. “It has become organic, it needs to grow and expand, it needs food [money] to support its agencies and the people within. [It] erodes critical thought through centralized top down management of everything.”