Illegal drug tax goes up in smoke

Virginia will not join more than 20 other states in taxing illegal drugs.

A House finance subcommittee killed House bill 2754, which proposed the tax commissioner levy tax stamps for Schedule I or II controlled substances (such as cocaine or LSD), marijuana and illegally manufactured alcohol.

The bill’s sponsor, Delegate Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, stressed that it was a “civil tax imposed upon those who require government services and aren’t paying their fair share.”

Had it become law, the legislation would have required any person who obtains an illegal substance to pay the tax within 48 hours of possession and then affix the stamps to the substance.

The Department of Taxation would not request any identifying information from the taxpayer, thereby preventing an opportunity for criminal prosecution.

“The big picture (is that drug traffickers) put a huge burden on all the rest of us who are law-abiding taxpayers,” Hurt said. “This is simply to make them share in those costs.”

Lennice Werth of Virginians Against Drug Violence opposed Hurt’s bill, claiming similar legislation in neighboring states like North Carolina has the public and even law enforcement officials believing that once-illegal substances are now legal.

“These stamps would be bought by collectors, they would be put on the Internet, they would be on eBay, and people all over the country would believe that these drugs are legal in Virginia if you pay this tax,” Werth said.

Michael Krawitz, president of the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also condemned the tax proposal, criticizing its failure to address the heart of drug trafficking: substance abuse. The commonwealth would send a mixed message by profiting from criminal activity, Krawitz said.