You’ve heard of the federal war on drugs, now get ready for the federal war on lunch meat.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations Agriculture Specialists seized 14 rolls of illicit Mexican bologna as it was being trafficked across the U.S. southern border last week. This constituted over 150 pounds of the popular lunch meat.
Mexican bologna is banned in the U.S. because it is made of pork, which has been determined by federal regulators to be unsanitary and not fit for consumption.
The seizure occurred around 9 a.m. on Thursday morning at the Bridge of the Americas international crossing after border agents saw the meat in the back of a Chevrolet pick-up truck. They destroyed the illegal meat shortly after it was seized, and the driver was set free.
“It is important that travelers understand they should declare all items they are transporting from abroad to avoid fines and penalties,” said CBP El Paso Port Director Beverly Good.
“A properly declared prohibited item can be abandoned at the port without consequence,” she added.
With the war on drugs slowly but surely coming to an end after decades of futility, the feds are looking for new substances to demonize and criminalize.
In addition to lunch meat, they are also considering cracking down on vape products that keep consumers away from tobacco:
“Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) is agitating to start a federal war on vaping, calling for taxes and regulations to be levied against this new public scourge.
“In the memorable words of the cartoon Pogo, we have met the enemy and the enemy is us, and I am referring in some respects to those of us on this side of the room,” Romney said to FDA regulators, referring to his fellow legislators.
“We need to take action to provide authority for you to be able to regulate effectively these products, and at this stage, I understand… Sen. Murkowski has put in place legislation, or proposed legislation over a year ago to restrict flavors and yet we don’t act,” he added.
Romney is perplexed why the Congress hasn’t jumped into action to ban vapes, and send people back to tobacco products that are far more harmful.
“We talk about this epidemic among young people, and wonder why you all haven’t done something about flavors, but why haven’t we done something about flavors?” Romney asked…
Vape-related hysteria has grown in recent months, with the White House even falling for the hype. President Donald Trump has proposed significant restrictions against vaping.
“It’ll take several weeks for us to put out the final guidance that will announce all the parameters around the enforcement policy, and then there will likely be about a 30-day delay to effective date, as is customary,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in September. But “at that point all flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavor would have to be removed from the market.”
Until federal power is sharply curtailed, bureaucrats in Washington D.C. will always be looking for new ways to use and abuse their power.
