State senator wants to tax drug dealers

A Cape Girardeau lawmaker wants to tax Missouri's drug dealers.

Republican state Sen. Wayne Wallingford said under his bill, dealers would face an additional charge of tax evasion if they are caught with illegal drugs that do not bear Missouri Department of Revenue stamps showing the excise tax has been paid.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the bill, contending it would penalize someone twice for the same crime.

John Payne, executive director of Show-Me Cannabis, a group seeking to legalize marijuana in Missouri, also questioned the legality of such a measure.

"In order to tax it, you have to bring it out of the illegal market," he said. "This is not constitutional."

Under Wallingford's measure, the Department of Revenue would be barred from revealing the identity of drug-tax payers to law-enforcement agencies. The state senator said that provision should strengthen the legality of the bill.

But Payne argued "you can't force someone to pay a tax" on an illegal substance. Congress tried to regulate marijuana by implementing a stamp tax in the 1930s, he said. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional in 1969.

Payne said he has no problem with taxing marijuana if the drug is legalized. He said the senator is "halfway right. He just has to go the rest of the way."

Wallingford said he proposed the measure after reading an article about drug-tax laws in other states.

Under Wallingford's bill, dealers would be required to pay the tax if they possessed "more than 35 grams of marijuana, one or more marijuana plants, one or more grams of any other unauthorized substance that is sold by weight, or one or more dosage units of any other unauthorized substance that is not sold by weight."

Twenty-five states have similar laws, Wallingford said, including the neighboring states of Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois. Arizona has had such a law for more than three decades.

Such laws, he added, have generated millions of dollars in revenue for states. North Carolina has collected $68 million in revenue since enacting a drug tax in 1990, he said.

"We have been missing out," Wallingford said.

But Payne questioned the legality of the tax laws on illegal drugs in those states.

"I think if any of the laws were challenged in court, they would be found unconstitutional," Payne said.

Dan Viets, a criminal defense attorney from Columbia, Missouri, agreed.

"In addition to concerns about double jeopardy, this kind of legislation has been held unconstitutional for other reasons in several states," said Viets, who serves on the board of directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,

Viets said Wallingford is "clearly out of touch with the opinions of the majority of Americans who favor taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol, as is now done in four states."

Wallingford said his bill, in effect, taxes Missouri's "underground economy." Drugs should not be tax-exempt just because they are illegal, he said.

Drug dealers aren't the only ones paying for the revenue stamps. Stamp collectors have bought many of the stamps issued by the states, Wallingford said.

"One stamp collector has a huge collection," he said.

Many of the state stamps have artistic designs.

"A lot of them have leaf designs," he said.

Payne agreed the stamps are "pieces of art." He said an argument could be made for issuing drug stamps just as a collector's item,

Wallingford said revenue from his proposed drug tax would benefit law-enforcement agencies and state government.

The measure also would make it harder for drug dealers "to get off on a technicality," he said.

"You are not going to get out of tax evasion. Just ask Al Capone how it worked out for him," he said. The Chicago organized-crime boss famously was convicted of not paying his taxes.

Under the measure, people arrested with illegal drugs without a tax stamp could avoid tax-evasion charges by paying the excise tax. Wallingford suggested some drug dealers would rather pay the tax than face an additional charge.

The bill sets various tax rates for different illegal substances. A tax of $3.50 per gram would be levied on marijuana. A person in possession of a marijuana plant would pay a $350 tax.

Cocaine would be taxed at $50 per gram. Other substances would be taxed at $200 per gram or dosage unit.

The measure would establish the "Unauthorized Substance Tax Commission," consisting of five law-enforcement officials, to regularly review the tax rates and make recommendations as to whether the rates should be increased.

Wallingford presented the bill to the Senate's Ways and Means Committee last week.

"The committee members loved it," he said, adding he mentioned at the hearing that one stamp collector was even featured in Playboy magazine. Wallingford serves as vice chairman of the committee.

The committee has yet to act on the legislation, but Wallingford believes the measure has a good chance of being brought before the full Senate for a vote later this session.

"It is certainly the most interesting bill that I have ever introduced," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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