The point most of you seem to be missing is that if the beam diverges, it does make the target easier to hit, but the spot power as experienced by the eye will be a tiny fraction of the laser output power equal to the orignal power, the area of the diverged bean at said distance and the eye receiving area.
Some of these lasers rumoured to be 50W for example, are still 5000 times more powerful than what is considered safe (1mW blink reaction safe) so even diverged could be injurious in an unlucky case.
However if you follow my posts on the other laser thread... There is absolutely no reason why any member of joe public needs anything above 1mW for general use (office pointers, laser levels etc) Anything above that is simply dangerous. Laser light is classed as a non-ionizing radiation and in the workplace exposure is controlled by health and safety regulations.
Its long past time these devices were regulated/banned. There is simply no necessary public use for them, and great scope for injury.