State Government's Drug Habit

It's no secret that there's plenty of hypocrisy under the dome at 23rd and Lincoln. Greedy politicians are hungry for every last dollar they can get their hands on. And as St. Paul understood, "people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires."

So it is that our governor and state legislators in effect tell Oklahomans, “Don’t smoke too much – it’s bad for you – but we’re counting on you to smoke enough to keep paying for our government programs." The attorney general says to tobacco companies, “We’re going to sue you evil, evil companies, but we’re not quite going to drive you into liquidation because, hey, we want to keep shaking you down." Our state lottery peddlers purchase billboards in certain neighborhoods where the residents are, shall we say, not exactly known for their high net worth or their proficiency in statistical mathematics.

Comes now a delightful new example of government greed and hypocrisy. A Reason Foundation report released last week points out that our politicians also have themselves a drug problem: They actually levy taxes (and enforce penalties for not paying them) on illegal drugs.

Oklahoma law requires anyone possessing certain amounts of illegal drugs to buy tax stamps for the drugs' packages. For example, the rate of taxation for marijuana is $3.50 per gram at or above 42.5 grams. Noncompliance results in a penalty of 200 percent of the tax assessed, plus the possibility of up to five years imprisonment, $10,000, or both.

"States are basically looking for another way to squeeze revenue out of the war on drugs," said Adrian Moore, vice president of research at Reason Foundation. "Governments aren't making money selling the stamps, the big money comes from fines charged to people who are busted on drug charges and then charged additional fines for not having the stamps."

"It's clear that taxing illegal drugs does nothing to discourage either the sale or use of illegal drugs," said Paul Messino, the Reason study's author. "In fact, doing so is hypocritical. By taxing an activity that is unlawful, states are trying to have their cake and eat it too."