digimills

Supposedly you can anonymously purchase these drug tax stamps from the Dept of Revenue. I’d like to see one true dealer have the balls to walk into the Revenue office and buy one, many are sold to collectors. Of the 726 stamps sold so far, none have turned up during a seizure.

“In April of 2005, Jeremy Robbins was arrested attempting to traffic two tons of marijuana from Arizona to East Tennessee. Indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges, Robbins was soon assessed a $1.1 million fine from Tennessee’s Department of Revenue. The reason: failure to comply with the state’s Unauthorized Substances Tax, which requires anyone in possession of a certain quantity of contraband — in the case of marijuana, more than 42.5 grams — to buy a tax stamp from the state government and affix it on the drug.”

Opponents argue that the tax penalties on top of criminal charges amounts to a second punishment, and thus a violation of double jeopardy law. For this reason, a Davidson County chancellor ruled the tax unconstitutional, and stopped the state from collecting Robbins’ $1.1 million. The Tennessee Dept of Revenue believes this decision will be overturned on appeal.

link (thanks slurp)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 11:46 am and is filed under gub'ment, law, eat/drink/be merry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.