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Tax on drugs? huh?
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll...NEWS03/70907021
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Tennessee’s tax on illicit drugs, known as the “crack tax,” is unconstitutional, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled today.
The unanimous opinion, written by Judge Sharon G. Lee, upholds a Loudon County Chancery Court decision that found that the tax on illicit drugs violates the drug possessor’s constitutional guarantee of due process and protections against self-incrimination.
Under a Tennessee law that took effect in January 2005, the state levies a tax on illegal substances, including marijuana, moonshine and cocaine. Drug dealers are required to anonymously pay the tax at a state revenue office and get a stamp to prove payment. If a dealer is arrested and doesn’t have a stamp, the state then goes after the money it is owed.
The law has been highly controversial, with some criminal defense attorneys claiming that the state is taxing people who aren’t even convicted of crimes and that the law violates a defendant’s right to self-incrimination.
“We affirm the trial court’s conclusion upon the alternate ground that the statute is arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable and, therefore, invalid under the Tennessee Constitution, in that it seeks to tax as a privilege, activity that prior legislation has designated as criminal activity,” the opinion said.
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I lost my sig 
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