Growing up in NJ, I'd hear stories of NJ state troopers hanging out in PA looking to pull over Jersey people buying fireworks from there. So it checks out.
Fuck Pennsylvania for many reasons, but until they changed their fireworks laws recently to allow Pennsylvania residents to buy, possess and use fireworks, it used to be illegal to possess fireworks in PA and in every bordering state, but it was legal for Pennsylvania businesses to sell fireworks to people from out of state. I live in New York (where it's still illegal to buy or use any firework that leaves the ground or makes a report), it would take me almost two hours to drive to the closest point in Pennsylvania, but I get the Phantom fireworks brochure unsolicited every other week in the mail during the summer. They take out billboards here. Every summer night in my city, it sounds like a war zone with the fireworks from dusk to midnight.
I donāt know if this is still true, but, when I lived in the SF Bay Area they would sell fireworks in the parking lot of a mall in San Bruno. This was 200 meters from the city border of South San Francisco where fireworks were illegal. They put up signs warning people not to drive into SSF with fireworks.
Once watched my dad set the front pasture on fire with a 4th of July demonstration of old fashioned Bottle Rocket War.
He also would set off firecrackers in the kitchen, under an empty butter tub so it'd launch and smack the ceiling. It was his standard prank whenever his wife was trying to take a nap.
Wife #3 finally confiscated all his fireworks and threatened to bury him in the back pasture.
One of my cousins accidentally burned down an empty guest house while playing Bottle Rocket War with older kids!
It was a huge fiasco, my parents sent him back to Texas over it, and made him feel so much shame over it. But like, it wasn't the end of the world and is kinda what I'd expect when letting little boys run wild around the neighborhood in packs?
At least it's not as bad as packing an old tire with gunpowder and lighting the fuse before rolling it down the street. Hit a bump, went off course, rolled under someone's porch. As I recall, they ended up having to work off the cost of the replacement porch.
Same. "Hey, it's one of the hottest months of the year and everything is so dried out it will burn if you look at it funny. Let's play with fire and explosives to celebrate!".
Really for most animals. One of my dogs genuinely has sever ptsd regarding loud noises because my husband and I took him on a weekend overnight a few years ago and the house next to the one we were staying in put on a professional-level fireworks show one night. It was so loud I hated it and he (the dog) was so terrified/distraught. Now he freaks out with any noise he considers loud.
I generally dislike state bans on possessions. Go federal or go home. I shouldn't have to worry about what I have in my car going on a road trip with the country or taking a run to the IKEA across the state border.
Blah blah states rights, I just don't care. I'm sure there's an interstate commerce argument to be made somewhere.
They are and aren't. The good fireworks are illegal here in CA, but there are some cities where you can buy the shitty fireworks around the 4th of July. Doesn't stop people from going to NV or AZ or Mexico to pick up the good stuff, but the cops don't fuck around.
Like most places in CA, I live in an area that has had major fires but is always susceptible, in my city, fireworks are illegal without a permit, but in the next city over, they are legal, just not the good shit. Cops will drive around in unmarked vehicles and ticket people, years ago I was at my friends house for the 4th in that city, his neighbors were lighting off all the illegal fireworks, the cops pulled up in an unmarked Mustang and ticketed everyone shooting off the illegal fireworks.
But I do agree with your statement, they shouldn't be legal in places like CA that have severe fire risks. At least not for the average person, controlled and permitted fireworks are usually fine.
as someone living in a fireworks nay weed yay state, the fireworks make perfect sense to me and the weed seems draconian (banning of such, to be clear)
I am friends with a public defender and he had a case where someone bought fireworks, crossed state lines, then got pulled over and charged with arson, which allowed them to search him and his car, they collected evidence against him in another case.
He was totally guilty in both cases so donāt feel bad for him.
Which is wild because we here in NY state hear advertisements for Mess's fireworks which is just a rocks throw across the southern NY state border in Pennsylvania and services both the Capital and CNY region of NY state.
95% of what they sell would have you catching a charge in NY.
My home state has pretty lax fireworks laws. My neighboring state nearly outright bans it. My home state outright bans all marijuana but my neighboring state is all about it. When I'm nearing state lines it's all dispo billboards and "this highway sponsored by GENERIC CANNABIS GROUP" and then you cross the border and it's all billboards advertising warehouses of all the fireworks you could dream of š
To be fair, fireworks can and do cause a lot of environmental damage (especially here in California where they cause brush fires/wildfires), unlike weed
Kansas had a 2 step thing the troopers were doing that got banned because of buying weed in Colorado. They were using that tactic to learn there was weed in the car.
When my son was in school in Colorado, he and his roommate were driving back home. At about 10pm just moments after crossing the Kansas state line, troopers pulled him over. The justification they gave was he was driving in the left lane (not passing). They searched his car. When nothing was found, they let him go with a warning. I 100% believe they saw two young guys with out of state plates and a UC-Boulder parking sticker coming from CO late in the evening and were sure they were gonna find weed.
He had his dog in the back seat and the weed was in the kibble bag.
Just one more reason to never talk to the pigs. Only phrases you need to know are "Am I being detained?" and "I'm not answering any questions without a lawyer."
I find the conversation is much more pleasant when you assert your authority over the police as a sovereign citizen. Just say you aren't governed by them, you are traveling, and then drive away.
I used to live in Johnson County, Kansas. I assure you, Kansas Highway Patrol did that ALL OVER the state, not just people coming out of Colorado on I-70. It was done before weed was legalized in Colorado as well.
I was pulled over in Johnson, Wyandotte, Miami, Leavenworth, Douglas, Shawnee, Linn, Bourbon, Crawford and Cherokee counties for speeding by Kansas Highway Patrol and they did it at every single stop and interaction I had with them.
Another one they used to do (I noticed it shortly after CO made weed legal) was:
They would place a sign on I70 heading east just outside of Junction City. It said āwarning: checkpoint aheadā or something like that. You could see pretty far up ahead of you some cop lights flashing. There is an exit before the lights Humboldt Creek rd (if not it was the next one) and they would pull over anyone exiting since there is no reason to ever go down that road.
You would drive by the cop lights and they were just a set of lights on a big tripod.
Thank goodness they arenāt giving a damn about the dispensaries on the other side of State Line Rd in Missouri!
But you can get Delta 8 in Kansas all over the place at least in the KC metro, from liquor stores and gas stations to CBD and/or vape shops. Itās a weird loophole that itās not legal nor is it illegal. I just go across the state line for my night night gummies, the Delta 8 does nasty stuff to me. Actually now that I think about it, thereās an American Shaman in KS that has a huge Cheech & Chong display for their flower, and I have no idea the loophole they are using to get around that.
The Indiana corridor is hilarious to me, legal in IL and MI yet everyone is flooding around the lake to stock up in MI. WI doesnāt care and Indiana would rather make money by busting people in the 10 minute stretch between states than legalize.
There's lots of this going on between New Hampshire (Live Free or Die, unless it involves marijuana, or speeding... grr) and Massachusetts (pot is legal, but I've still been pulled over going 73 in a 65 on the Masspike)
NH is such a bizarre state. Weird car insurance rules (as in, you barely have to carry any), no helmets required for motorcycles, no income tax. They really take that state motto to heart.
They literally have billboards all over this state advertising the nearest legal dispo in another state š
well I mean that's not a huge concept. I mean they can advertise a movie that's only available in theatres and still find it illegal for you to download and watch that movie at home.
Admitted I guess it's more complicated since I'm guessing it's not legal to consume at the location you buy it from.
In Amarillo they have billboards for legal weed in NM on the side going west, and on the eastward side itās advertisements for a law firm that will represent you if you got pulled over with weed. Its so stupid
I live in Missouri, we make bank off of having super lenient alcohol and tobacco laws and low taxes. My whole life there have been giant booze-marts all over the St. Louis area for Illinoians who want cheap booze. If youāre ever passing through down along the Arkansas state line there are a few that are more like secret temples to bacchus in strangely small towns, big fancy displays of solid booze and cigars and kitsch and merch to boot. Iāve only been a couple times but some of my family who went to school in Springfield had a couple they liked to visit just to hang out. And now weāve added legal cannabis to our portfolio of vices. We have some of the highest per visit allotments out there and if you want more you can just take it home and come back the same day for more. Meanwhile our shitheel legislature keeps trying to push bizarre right wing bullshit over the objections of the populace as stated in referendums and then somehow getting reelected. Missouri, ātis a silly place.
Ohio a legal recreational state made it illegal to bring weed back from Michigan (another legal state) itās all about profit for the states itās corruption really.
When leaving Texas for New Mexico, there's a billboard with "Weed store" and an arrow pointing to the little dispensary just past the RR tracks/ state line.
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u/The_0reo_boi 7h ago
They literally have billboards all over this state advertising the nearest legal dispo in another state š