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« Tsunami Relief | Main | "Our God Is Practical" » December 29, 2004Drug TaxesThe state of Tennessee will start taxing the sale of illegal drugs next year. This actually works - and is a pretty good idea, though it sounds a bit odd at first. The law will require sellers of illegal drugs to pay excise taxes, just legal businesses. Most drug-pushers won't comply, of course, but the law can be used to assess back taxes on dealers who are caught by law enforcement, adding an additional financial penalty to their crimes while also bringing in a few extra dollars for the state budget. While I'm generally opposed to tax increases, I would heartily support the legislature raising the excise tax on the sale of illegal drugs to 100 percent. They also ought to require drug-pushers to charge sales tax, and penalize them if they don't. Posted in Tennessee News
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Projected revenue: $0 Actual purpose is something else to charge drug dealers with or another justification to confiscate their assets. Posted by: SayUncle at December 29, 2004 12:26 PMStates that have done it have seen actual revenue collected. Read the Tennessean story I linked to. But, yes, the actual purpose is to give law enforcement another way to attack drug dealers - by providing another tool (nonpayment of taxes) to seize their assets. That's a good thing, and the added revenue will be a good thing for taxpayers. Every dollar taken from a drug dealer means one dollar less the state needs to take from law-abiding taxpayers. Posted by: Bill at December 29, 2004 01:47 PMI read it. I don't buy it. GovMath is not the most reliable in the world (your own posts about TN's surplus despite budget crunches attest to that). Posted by: SayUncle at December 29, 2004 01:53 PMI don't buy it either. Another seizure tool spawned on the so-called war on drugs that will, in a decade, be used arbitrarily to seize personal property...just like laws enacted in the 1980's-90's are doing today. Posted by: Drake at December 30, 2004 08:25 AMah, but it will also make it more tempting for a cop to plant a couple bags of weed in your car (or on your person, in your house) in order to throw you in jail and take everything you own. and since they can enter and search your house without a warrant these days (thanks Patriot Act), what's to keep them from planting evidence? Posted by: Walker at December 30, 2004 04:33 PMI can't believe that Hobbs is sitting here advocating TN Law Enforcement stealing people's personal property. And this law is just a double jeopardy riddled excuse to do that. Christ, Bill. You know how this works. They don't just go after drug dealers. They go after drug users. With your background, how would you determine how much a "dealer" owed in back taxes. Would you actually come up with a concrete number backed up by some kind of, oh, I don't know - fact? Or would it just be easier to settle for whatever you've got in your figurative pocket? There will be plenty of abuse for you to chronicle and exalt before this is all over. Posted by: apoplectic at January 4, 2005 10:18 AMPost a comment
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