Tax on illegal drugs in Tennessee nets $3.5 million
Posted by BrianTennessee has collected nearly $3.5 million since it began enforcing its tax on illegal drugs two years ago, officials from the Department of Revenue said Wednesday.
The state’s Unauthorized Substances Tax, passed by the Legislature in 2004, requires anyone in possession of an illegal drug to buy and affix stamps to the drugs’ packaging.
Under the law, information provided to the Department of Revenue to buy stamps cannot be used in criminal prosecutions. There is a toll-free number for stamp application requests, and stamps are doled out based on type of drug and weight.
Just imagine what that number would be if drugs were decriminalized, regulated, and taxed - not to mention the savings in resources no longer used to fight the “war on drugs.”
Related content:
January 5th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I thought you didn’t like sin taxes.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:43 am
I assume you’re referring to my comments on Alabama’s cigarette tax revenue. I never said that I didn’t like sin taxes. I think it is entirely appropriate for the government to tax a non essential item (alcohol, cigarettes, other drugs, the list could go on) that exhibits somewhat inelastic demand after the tax is applied. The government should not use excessive taxation as a means of eliminating an industry. One can approve of sin taxes and still notice a potential conflict of interests when the government becomes too dependent on a revenue source that they claim to be actively trying to reduce or eliminate. I’m cynical and I imagine that if legislators could choose between eliminating smoking and proposing to the public a new tax to replace the revenue or ensuring enough people smoke so that they don’t have to ask the public for new taxes they will choose the latter.