Tax on illegal drugs proposed in New York
Published 11:16 pm Sunday, February 17, 2008
NEW YORK — New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, struggling to close a $4.4 billion budget gap, has proposed making drug dealers pay tax on their stashes of illegal drugs. The new tax would apply to cocaine, heroin and marijuana, and could be paid with pre-bought “tax stamps” affixed to the bags of dope.
Some critics in the legislature are asking what the Democratic governor has been smoking.
Republican state Sen. Martin Golden dubbed the proposal “the crack tax.” Some opponents said that because cocaine and weed would be subject to the new levies, it should more aptly be called “the crack-pot tax.”
Taxing illegal drugs is more widespread than generally known. At least 21 states have some form of tax for illicit drugs, although some of those laws have been challenged in courts, and others have fallen into disuse. Almost all the remaining drug-tax laws are used mainly by local law enforcement agencies as a way to seize drug money and fund counter-narcotics operations.
Most states with the law sell stamps that drug dealers can buy in advance, like what Spitzer is proposing. Because no drug dealers are known to buy the stamps and pay their tax in advance, the tax is usually levied after they are caught.
