How did retics get so popular?

[Hugsplox]

Now there's a bill before Congress to prevent interstate shipping of Lacey list species, and even though the bill seems to have stalled it appears that the mere threat of a ban is keeping demand high. Since political discussions are more or less frowned upon on this site, I will withhold a long discussion about how government bans of various things inevitably backfire.

in my opinion and that's all it is my opinion i would love to see more education less banning trying to ban anything only makes people want whatever you're trying to ban even more.
And that is the worst reason to buy anything.

I'm a big advocate of education over legislation.. so to speak. (I'm pretty proud of myself for that little rhyme )

We've had several threads here along the same lines as this one and when the USARK alerts go out about the importance of education and policing our own within the hobby. Unfortunately what happens a lot, and I'll avoid going on a long political rant as well, but I think with some things the government feels it's easier to ban than put any kind of licensing system or education requirements in place. I would love for everyone to be able to keep whatever they want, but I do like the idea of you having to take some sort of class prior to bringing home something like a retic. Similar to the concealed carry classes some states require you take before getting a weapons permit. You pay a fee to attend the class, and after you can go get your permit. It's not incredibly time consuming, but it offers people the chance to learn in a safe environment. Now obviously, doing this with reptiles would be hard there's a slew of requirements and regulations for those who would be giving the classes, but just an idea other than "let's just ban them!"

Anyway, back to Snag's original question, bcr hit the nail on the head with the bans really driving up the demand for these snakes. Think late 1919, just before prohibition went into effect, people stockpiled booze like they were never going to be able to get it again, because they didn't think they would.