Good riddance to several bills

The Legislature’s first big deadline came Friday night, when bills that couldn’t clear committees in their houses of origin were sent to the recycling bin. For plenty of proposals, this is the most productive purpose they could have served.

Good riddance to this bunch of legislation, which threatened our freedoms and our wallets:

— Senate Bill 203 would have forced Nevadans to obtain a doctor’s prescription to purchase many common cold and allergy medications that currently require just a signature and identification. Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, sponsored the bill, which would have packed doctors’ offices with sniffle sufferers and created all-new burdens for the mildly sick. Why? To make a decongestant ingredient favored by meth cooks harder to get — even though the drug is manufactured mostly in Mexico.

– Assembly Bill 90 would have created new kinds of victims for trial lawyers, prohibiting workplace harassment and discrimination over height, weight and physical mannerisms. Just what the state needs: another law to encourage lawsuits against struggling businesses.

— Senate Bill 235 would have let police stop motorists and cite them for nothing more than failing to wear a seat belt. Making seat belt non-use a primary offense would give police carte blanche to stop vehicles and invite abuses.

— Assembly Bill 178, from Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, would have created a state fund for boxers with medical expenses — to cover fighters who, with their managers and promoters, failed to buy health insurance. But buying health coverage should be encouraged; the proposed taxpayer bailout would have had the opposite effect.

— Assembly Bill 34 would have lifted the state’s ban on cameras that issue traffic citations. Such equipment, installed with the promise of nabbing red-light runners and speeders, has been a public relations nightmare in many jurisdictions without making streets appreciably safer. Besides, do we really want to move one step closer to a surveillance state?