Nashville Judge: Crack Tax Unconstitutional

WVLT-TV (TN) ^ | Jul 12, 2006

[Know your rights]

A Nashville judge is calling the state's tax on illegal drugs "unconstitutional".

The levy took effect in 2005 and applies to substances like cocaine, crack, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Chancellor Richard Dinkins says the tax violates the defendants' right against self incrimination and to due process and is levied long before the accused stands trial.

The ruling stopped the state from collecting more than one million dollars from Jeremy Robbins, who is one of at least eight people accused of moving two tons of marijuana from Arizona to East Tennessee.

The ruling applies only to the Robbins case; legal experts say a court may eventually have to decide on the validity of the tax.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[muawiyah]

Well, well, well ~ now we know what the judge does for funzies.

Least he's not into the kiddies.

[Darkwolf377]

Crack Tax Unconstitutional

Barney Frank flew into a rage on the House floor over this until someone told him it's about the OTHER kind of crack, not the one HE'S addicted to, but the Marion Barry type....

[driftdiver]

"Well, well, well ~ now we know what the judge does for funzies.

Least he's not into the kiddies."

Might presumptious of you isnt it?? The war on drugs has been the source of MANY abuses of our constitutional rights. Half the people in federal prison are there for drug related crimes. Police are confiscating anything they feel is drug related and citizens are forced to prove their innocent.

Drugs do an incredible amount of damage. The war on drugs seems to be catching whats left.

[Know your rights]

now we know what the judge does for funzies.

We do? How?

[billybudd]

Taxing illegal drugs is funny - the government trying to have it both ways. At least this judge has his head screwed on right.

[baltoga]

The judge got it right. It's unconstitutional.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Yuck! Seriously, this judge seems to be pointing out the ridiculousness of the Marijuana Tax Act, where a substance that's illegal to possess by anyone is subject to atrociously inflated taxation if a person is found holding it. Such a bass-ackward law was poetically implemented my a man named Aslinger back in the 1930s.

[El Gato]

Does this also make the National Firearms Act, which is based on the Harrison Narcotics Act, unconstitutional? Or would it if this were a federal case? Certainly the same logic applies.

[ChildOfThe60s]

The Feds have charged big time drug people with tax evasion for not paying taxes on their profits in the past.

The logic of it has always escaped me. How are they supposed to report the income in order to pay taxes on it?

Twilight Zone

[SteveMcKing]

But the tax on a child's teddy bear... that's allowed.

[Axhandle]

Not being a fan of taxes, I'll take what I can get. Reducing taxation will always be a good thing for as long as I'm alive.

[LenS]

I don't know about that. There's a long history of litigation at the Federal level dealing with income taxation of illegal activities. The courts have generally agreed that such taxation is legal. Heck, Congress even mandated that drug dealers can't deduct business expenses besides the actual costs of the "goods" -- i.e. no deductions for advertising expenses. *g* Though, other illegal activities such as prostitution can deduct normal business expenses (I recall reading about a case that dealt with prostitutes' clothing expenses).

I doubt that this judge's argument about self-incrimination hasn't been used by defense lawyers in the past. To be honest, it would be a bad precedent because it would establish the idea that only legal businesses get taxed.

[curlewbird]

Iowa has a drug tax stamp. I asked the question of our local county sherrif one time, do people really buy these things?? He said they did! He said that actually, most of the buyers are stamp collectors. ( I am sure they were checked out too!)

[madison10]

How can you tax something that's illegal? Illegal almost equals invisible.

(Or how do you tax SOMEONE that's illegal)

[Lurker]

We've got 'em here in IL as well. I bought one a few years back as a souvenir.

L

[AntiGuv]

The South Carolina stamp epitomizes the absurdity of it all:

[curlewbird]

Suuuuuurrrrreeee!! A souvenir, eh??!! LOL!!

[curlewbird]

So, just where exactly is someone supposed to keep that thing?? In their wallet, so if they get busted with drugs, they can say, "Look, I paid my tax"??!!