I have read that the new laws regarding FRS radios state that you may use up to 2 watts power, yet I can't find a single 2 way radio that advertises 2 watts power; only .5 watt, or they don't state anything at all. Why are no 2w FRS walkie talkies on the market?
Every single forum and google search that pops up is 10 years old. Its driving me insane, its like google is deliberately making this research extremely difficult. ANY help is appreciated.
In fact, almost everything that was previously sold as an FRS/GMRS radio is now an FRS radio.
"In 2017, the FCC changed its rules to stop equipment authorization of FRS dual-service radios and it changed the rules for both FRS and GMRS such that existing radios would be reclassified as either FRS or GMRS to remove the confusion of whether a license was needed for legal operation.
Specifically, if you have a radio that was sold as a dual-service FRS/GMRS radio and it is limited to the channels and power limits provided... then that device can be operated as an FRS device without a licensing requirement." (from https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/family-radio-service-frs)
The channel and power limits for FRS are 2W for channels 1-7, and 0.5W for channels 8-14 - so most radios that are officially FRS can do 2W, as do all the old "FRS/GMRS" radios, which are now classified as FRS.
It appears that 2 watt FRS radios are still available.
Click on this custom Google search.
This should also work, which limited the search results to the past 30 days for me. There was at least one refurbished one from Newegg. There appeared to be others selling them.
Disclaimer: I am not in the USA.
However, I do know how to use Google, and that came up with lots of products that claim to be FRS radios. But most of them are not (because they are mostly Baofengs that put out 8W, which is obviously out of spec for FRS in the USA). I suspect that this is the main source of your frustration - people lie in advertising. Advertise as "FRS! Long range!" But it turns out that it's too high a power for FRS, and as such a licence is required to use it.
I did find two manufacturers that are not too shy to say they make 2W FRS radios: Retevis have a few models, and I found another called Ansoko.
"Shopping" questions (such as which model is best for a particular situation, where to buy stuff, which sells for the best price) are not permitted on this site for good reason - the site would get clogged very quickly with simple questions that help nobody and that can be answered by looking in the usual places (start with Google).
But I am answering this question basically to say that such things do seem to exist, and they can be found on the internet quite easily. The search I did was for: 2 watt frs radio - and it turned up a few promising leads. Just avoid the Baofengs, because they are all at least 5W and mostly 8W.