| Photo: MarijuanaStamps.com |
Connecticut State Senator Robert J. Kane (R-Watertown) claims he can’t understand why his idea isn’t getting more support. “Everyone but the drug dealers would benefit,” said Kane, the lead sponsor of legislation to exploit a 1991 law that imposes a tax on illegal marijuana sales and establishes penalties for not paying the tax.
The 1991 tax was enacted to provide another avenue for seizing the assets of drug dealers, reports the Waterbury Republican-American.
This is the second year that Kane has pushed his pot tax. The first bill died in the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. This year’s version is stalled in the state Senate.
But this isn’t the honest, upfront kind of taxation that comes with legalization. This is that sneaky kind of taxation that is imposed on a still-illegal substance — to provide a pretext for asset seizure, for “non-payment of taxes” on a product that would have gotten you busted even if you paid the tax.
Kane claims his legislation is a way to “discourage and penalize” drug dealers while also benefiting law-abiding taxpayers.
His other major selling point is that the bill would create a financial incentive for towns and cities to step up marijuana enforcement, because municipalities would then “collect revenues” (translation: steal all the property) from local marijuana arrestees.
“They already drove out most of the manufacturing and other businesses out of the state,” wrote one skeptical commenter, “J in Waterbury,” on the Republican-American‘s site. “Why not drive out the pot dealers too? Ha ha.”
