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bodynotdead
TrichodermaCultivator



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Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs
#8039072 - 02/18/08 05:34 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/18/MNT2V4DC3.DTL
 Monday, February 18, 2008
If you can't beat it, tax it.
That seems to be the axiom in New York these days, where Democratic 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 governor has been smoking.
"I guess if it moves, he'll tax it," said Republican state Sen. Martin Golden, who dubbed the proposal "the crack tax." Some opponents said that because cocaine and marijuana would be subject to the new levies, it should more aptly be called "the crack-pot tax."
"How do I explain to my 16-year-old son that we're giving a certain legitimacy to marijuana, cocaine and heroin?" asked Golden, a former New York City police officer who represents a Brooklyn district. "We are taxing an illegal substance." He added, "Is prostitution next?"
On the other side of the aisle, some Democrats, too, were stunned by the plan. "My initial instinct is: I don't understand it," said Bill Perkins, a state senator from Harlem. "Most of the dealers I'm familiar with are petty crack dealers - most of them are crackheads. They are broke, to say the least. I just don't understand how you impose a tax" on broke crackheads, he said.
Taxing illegal drugs is more widespread than is 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.
The controversial idea grew out of the efforts to fight bootleggers such as Al Capone during Prohibition - going after the bootleggers for unpaid taxes often required a lighter burden of proof than a criminal prosecution. Taxing illicit drugs gained popularity during the 1980s and early 1990s, when prosecutors and law enforcement authorities were pushing for mandatory sentences and other measures to signal a crackdown on drugs and drug use.
"It was a way of getting tougher on criminals," said Joseph Henchman, tax counsel for the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based educational group. "It kind of boggles my mind. If you want to get tougher on drug dealers, increase the penalties."
In September, a state appeals court ruled a drug law in Tennessee unconstitutional, saying that an illegal substance could not be taxed. In Massachusetts, that state's supreme court in 1998 ruled that a drug tax was an unconstitutional form of "double jeopardy," so it is not used, although it remains on the books, according to the revenue department in Boston.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, called the drug tax "a wacky idea. It's a quintessential example of the absurdity of the war on some drugs."
Most states with such laws 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.
Some states have designed distinctive drug stamps, often depicting a marijuana leaf. Nebraska's drug stamp depicts a rolled joint crossed with a syringe in front of a skull and what appears to be a headstone, with the label "R.I.P."
In New York, Spitzer proposed the drug tax in his 2008-09 budget as a way to deal with a projected shortfall, and in a memo said taxing drug dealers would raise $13 million in the coming fiscal year. The governor's office said the bill would contain strict secrecy requirements, so drug dealers who paid their taxes would not be incriminating themselves.
A tax stamp for a gram of marijuana would cost $3.50, and $200 for a gram of cocaine, "whether pure or diluted," according to the governor's proposal.
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MycoMaster_420
God amongst men


Registered: 02/10/08
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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: bodynotdead]
#8039181 - 02/18/08 05:50 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I hope they tax the fuck outta all them crack and heroin dealers. Next step is legality and #1 on the list is marijuana in my opinion.
Good shit, very good shit indeed.
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: bodynotdead]
#8039236 - 02/18/08 05:59 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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---
Edited by EntheogenicPeace (02/13/21 01:38 PM)
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lessthanzero77
seeker


Registered: 11/26/07
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Loc: Anytown, USA
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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: bodynotdead]
#8039281 - 02/18/08 06:07 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Some opponents said that because cocaine and marijuana would be subject to the new levies, it should more aptly be called "the crack-pot tax."
I'll bet those opponents think they're fucking hilarious.
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itsthedank
The Dude



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: lessthanzero77]
#8039399 - 02/18/08 06:32 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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"It was a way of getting tougher on criminals," said Joseph Henchman, tax counsel for the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based educational group. "It kind of boggles my mind. If you want to get tougher on drug dealers, increase the penalties."
^That hasn't worked for over forty years...i think it's time we try something new
Seems like they're on the right track, but, do you really think that drug dealers would pay more money to sell their drugs...$200 for a gram of coke...yea right
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mebesideme
o-bliminal


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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: itsthedank]
#8039789 - 02/18/08 07:47 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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The higher the tax per part of drug, the more feasible it becomes to sell the drug in smaller quantity for the dealer to maintain a good profit margin. This would warrant a much larger customer base and make it more enticing to children, in one's opinion.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
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Loc: Americas
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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: mebesideme]
#8040201 - 02/18/08 09:15 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
"How do I explain to my 16-year-old son that we're giving a certain legitimacy to marijuana, cocaine and heroin?" asked Golden, a former New York City police officer who represents a Brooklyn district. "We are taxing an illegal substance." He added, "Is prostitution next?"
oh my god... save the children
you'd probably tell the kid that THC and cocaine are allready FDA approved, DEA regulated, legally-used medicines
And heroin isn't used cuz it never gained a foothold traditionally, and is the same as morphine, thus no reason for it.
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nk pakelika
Visual assassin



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: johnm214]
#8040583 - 02/18/08 10:22 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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articles like this ammuse me. fuck the mayor of new york for this one. and if the pound is taxed on the way into the state do the distributers and street level dealers have too also tax it? cause if they do thats bull shit, cause that means its being taxed 3 times and the government is making WAY more than they should.
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shroom_ninja
Stranger



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: nk pakelika]
#8041267 - 02/19/08 12:50 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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this has to be a joke.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: itsthedank]
#8041512 - 02/19/08 03:21 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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> "It kind of boggles my mind. If you want to get tougher on drug dealers, increase the penalties."
If you want to get tougher on drug dealers, legalize the drugs thus removing all profit from the practice of selling drugs on the street.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Madtowntripper
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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: bodynotdead]
#8042467 - 02/19/08 11:31 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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You guys all realize all this does is increase penalties for people caught w/ drugs and w/o the stamps, right?
Nobody is being helped by this at all, it will just mean higher fines and longer jail sentences.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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pabloescabar
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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: nk pakelika]
#8042698 - 02/19/08 12:28 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
nk pakelika said: articles like this ammuse me. fuck the mayor of new york for this one. and if the pound is taxed on the way into the state do the distributers and street level dealers have too also tax it? cause if they do thats bull shit, cause that means its being taxed 3 times and the government is making WAY more than they should.
Wouldn't be surprised, cars are taxed every time they are sold, so a car can be taxed over and over again. And no one thinks anything of it, so yes every time you drugs are sold they are taxed again. Pretty sure it works that way with everything in the good old land of the free. [image] [/image]
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: pabloescabar]
#8042840 - 02/19/08 01:24 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I might buy a stamp if it ever passes. Would be cute, despite giving moeny to New York...
And what more do they want from dealers? These folks allready get long sentences and lose everything, including any legitimate job. Somehow I don't think they've got more money to give.
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HighHat
Repeat Gold Medal eBay -TiVoist



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: pabloescabar]
#8042860 - 02/19/08 01:29 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
> "It kind of boggles my mind. If you want to get tougher on drug dealers, increase the penalties."
If you want to get tougher on drug dealers, legalize the drugs thus removing all profit from the practice of selling drugs on the street.
Imagine the kick in the balls if you just spent $1800 on 2 pounds of weed, then weed is legalized, reducing your product's value to a couple hundred bucks (if that).
If they really want to personally fuck over every single drug dealer in the country, they will tax and regulate drugs. If they don't do that, they are either stupid or have hidden agendas (probably both).
-------------------- Have you ever felt like you were wearing a hat, but you weren't? "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -Letter from the Pennsylvania Assembly, November 11, 1755 This profile is strictly for role-playing. Any alleged association with illegal activities is purely fictional. Any images depicting illegal activities are photo-shopped or stolen.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: HighHat]
#8046099 - 02/20/08 03:48 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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> Imagine the kick in the balls if you just spent $1800 on 2 pounds of weed, then weed is legalized, reducing your product's value to a couple hundred bucks (if that).
Imagine the idiot that would continue to spend $1800 on a few pounds of weed when he could grow it legally for a fraction of that price. Long term, legalized drugs will destroy black market drug dealers by removing the demand for their product.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Shroom Empire
Myco Matrix




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Re: Spitzer wants N.Y. to tax illegal drugs [Re: Seuss]
#8046274 - 02/20/08 07:28 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Wow, I've heard it all now.
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