Tennessee’s (Illegal) Drug Tax

Tennessee’s Crack Tax Sticker

Leave it to Tennessee to have one of the sneakiest, and some say unconstitutional, ways to make money off of illegal drugs.

Seems that all illegal drugs in the state of Tennessee are required to have an unauthorized substances tax stamp. A person with over a gram of an illegal substance must purchase (anonymously, of course) stamps in person at the Department of Revenue. Here’s a description of Who is required to pay the tax from the State of Tennessee website:

The tax is due by any dealer who possesses an unauthorized substance upon which the tax has not been paid as evidenced by a stamp available from the Tennessee Department of Revenue. A "dealer" is any person who possesses one or more marijuana plants or more than 42.5 grams of marijuana, seven or more grams of any other unauthorized substance that is sold by weight, 10 or more dosage units of any other unauthorized substance not sold by weight, or any illicit alcoholic beverage.

Tennessee makes the most money from illegal drug seizures without the stamp. Since the tax was enacted in 2004, no seizures made have had the stamp affixed, meaning the State then taxes the offender at up to 10 times the amount of the stamp cost. That’s where the legality of the tax comes into question. Read the fill story over at Time.com.

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