I'm a compulsive news-freak.  I don't read one paper, I read several, every day, from all around the country.  Since the advent of web newspaper editions, it's easier than ever to keep up with public (and some that shouldn't be public) events.

Today's case in point comes from The Huntsville (Alabama) Times.  The story has been picked up by various news syndicates and talk radio hosts, so you may be familiar with the state's recently passed obscenity laws.  It's a package deal, concerning zoning and other issues involving adult businesses.  But tucked away the in dark corners of the law is a little surprise for the women of Alabama.  It is now illegal to sell sexual devices and "marital aids", including vibrators.

Quoting Times staff writer Steve Doyle:

                    The ban on the sale of sexual devices is part of a new
                     anti-obscenity law that took effect in July. Sponsored by
                     state Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison, the law prohibits the
                     sale of "any device designed or marketed as useful
                     primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs."

                     Violators can be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to a
                     maximum of one year in prison.

A wee bit intrusive, wouldn't you say?  Not to mention discriminatory?  Assistant Attorney General Courtney Carver (no gender indicted in the story) points out that the law bans only the sale--not the use of--sexual devices, but then compares the claim that sexual aids are a health related issue to those who say they need marijuana to relieve pain, and points out that states continue to arrest medical marijuana users.

This is so ridiculous as to be a non-issue, right?  Wrong.  Consider than in Spokane, WA last month, several people were arrested and fined $500 plus court costs for buying a pack of cigarettes in Post Falls, Idaho (where the sin tax is SIGNIFICANTLY lower) and bringing them into the state of Washington.  The charge?  Tax evasion -- shopping out of state to avoid the laws of the state of Washington.  How was it enforced?  By teams of officers staking out convenience stores and smoke shops in Post Falls, writing down the license plate numbers of cars bearing Washington plates, then radioing their counterparts hiding just across the state line on I-90.

Ridiculous?  Yes.  Legal, apparently also yes.

What if one of my cousins from Lim Rock, Alabama decides to drive across the river to Chattanooga, Tennessee to see another of our mutual relations, and while there makes a little stop at Madame Frufru's Tantalizing Lotions, Potions and Magic Wands, and brings her purchase back home, has she crossed state lines to avoid the law?  Can she be prosecuted for that?  I don't think anyone knows.

If we're going to have Orgasm Police on the prowl, it will give a whole new meaning to the term Women's Sufferage.
 

(read the Huntsville Times story for details on the lawsuit to stop the enforcement of this law.)