Pubdate: Sun, 13 Mar 2005
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2005 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Schuyler Kropf, Of The Post And Courier Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

MARIJUANA TAX STAMPS NO HIT WITH DEALERS

Officials Say Collectors, Not Sellers, Are Only Ones Buying Pot
Stamps

As the leader of Charleston's pro-marijuana lobby, Berkeley County
resident Roman Prince calls the state law requiring pot dealers to buy
tax stamps "a sucker's bet."

"More people are going to get busted" if they stand in line to
identify themselves as sellers, he said. How wrong Prince is.

Ten years after it went on the books, a little-known law requiring
marijuana dealers to pay taxes up front on pot sales has had an impact
as fleeting as, well, a puff of smoke.

As far as state officials can tell, not a single dealer has purchased
the required stamps. Instead, the stamps have created a market and a
demand among collectors who've been scooping them up for display.

"I have South Carolina's current stamps and a copy of their original,"
said Milwaukee, Wis., defense attorney Robert Henak, who collects
state drug stamps from around the country as a hobby to point out what
he called the absurdity of drug tax laws.

Henak isn't alone. Of the 433 pot stamps sold by the state since 1994,
the overwhelming majority were bought as novelties and nothing more,
according to the South Carolina Department of Revenue. Today, drug tax
stamps are more likely to be seen at trade shows than on a dime bag.

"Some are scarce as hen's teeth, others you can find all the time,"
said Scott Troutman, secretary of the State Revenue Society, a
nationally focused collector's group dedicated to the preservation of
state tax stamps from all of U.S. history.

As envisioned by the South Carolina Legislature, the stamps were to be
required for every gram of illegal drugs sold by a dealer in the
state. They are similar to the stamps affixed to other vices taxed by
the state, such as liquor and cigarettes.

The schedule requires a $3.50 sticker for every gram of marijuana,
which is the most popular among collectors. The current South Carolina
marijuana stamps shows a pot leaf imposed over an image of the state
with a circle and red stripe superimposed, the universal "no" symbol.
It is currently for sale at the Department of Revenue office in Columbia.

For other drugs, the tax requires a $200 sticker for every gram of a
controlled substance, such as cocaine, and $2,000 for a 50-unit dose
of a controlled substance that's not sold by weight, such as pills.
Not a single one of those has been bought.

A drug dealer who violates the stamp law is subject to a fine of 100
percent of the tax, in addition to possible jail time.

As many as 18 other states have similar laws on the books. They were
adopted in the 1980s and '90s as legislators sought more tools to
prosecute drug traffickers as tax cheats.

At the time South Carolina's law was passed, no one seriously thought
drug kingpins or corner dealers would line up to buy them. But from
the outset, South Carolina's tax stamp law has been of little value to
enforcement agents.

Because of constitutional concerns over self-incrimination, people who
buy the stamps aren't required to give their names, addresses or any
other personal data, leaving no way for the state or law enforcement
to track where they go.

Additionally, the state Department of Revenue, which produces and
enforces the stamps, has profited little from them. There is no
mandate for arresting police agencies to contact the revenue
department or to include them in a prosecution. When drug dealer
assets are divvied up after a successful prosecution, most of the
money recovered goes first to local, state and federal law enforcement
agencies. The revenue department usually is last.

In the 10 years the law has been active, the department has received
$115,988 from the stamp program, a fraction of the millions of dollars
in drugs seized in the last decade. The money was collected mostly in
the rare instance when revenue staffers are called in by local police
to perform audits.

"There's really no incentive for local law enforcement officials to
refer a case to us," said spokesman Danny Brazell. "We do get a few
referrals and that's how we've obtained the little bit of money we've
gotten from the illegal drug industry in South Carolina."

The one legal challenge against the state's drug stamp went to the
South Carolina Supreme Court in 1995. Drug dealer Demetric S. McMullin
protested the $105,000 tax bill from the revenue department he
received for the 220 grams of cocaine and crack cocaine in his
possession when he was arrested. None of it was stamped.

McMullin argued the stamp act was unconstitutional because the state
had already imposed a criminal penalty on him for the cocaine charge.
The high court disagreed on grounds that charging a tax on drugs
doesn't equate to a form of punishment.

It doesn't surprise University of South Carolina criminologist Geoff
Alpert that South Carolina's drug stamp law is seldom enforced. He
said authorities already have plenty of tools to prosecute drug cases.

"The people who sell a lot of marijuana aren't going to be the ones
standing in line paying their taxes," he added.

Alpert sees a dealer's market for the stamps, but not on the
streets.

"If I had any, I'd be putting them up on e-Bay," he
said.

MARIJUANA AND CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE TAX ACT

- -- Dealers are not required to give their name, address, Social
Security number or other identifying information on the form.

- -- A dealer who violates the stamp law must pay a penalty of 100
percent of the tax, in addition to the tax required. Additional
penalties include up to five years of prison time and a fine of up to
$10,000.

- -- The stamps are to be affixed to every parcel of drugs sold but can
be used only once.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek