From: [b--r--e] at [rcf.rsmas.miami.edu] (Charlie Byrne)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Supreme Court Drug "Taxes" Ruling
Date: 29 Sep 1993 11:03:49 GMT

Supreme court will soon rule on whether $ assesments on illegal drugs are
punishments or taxes. If they are punishments, apparently they would be
disallowed under double jeopardy rules. Disclaimer: IANAL.
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Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 18:31:20 PDT
	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether states
can impose a tax on the possession and storage of dangerous drugs, apart
from any criminal penalty.
	The high court is expediting the case, ordering Tuesday that all
briefs be filed before the end this year.
	The Montana Supreme Court ruled last year that the state's tax of
$100 per ounce ($3.50 per gram) of marijuana was an excise tax, not a
punishment.
	But in a separate case that made its way through the federal courts,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed, citing double
jeopardy. The high court agreed Tuesday to hear the case.
	Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota and Nebraska combined to
file a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court in support of
Montana.
	In the case, Montana claimed ``the extended Kurth family'' in the
central part of the state was in the growing marijuana business. A 1987
raid on the family ranch yielded more than 2,100 plants, 1,881 ounces
(53 kg) of harvested marijuana and several gallons of marijuana
derivatives, according to the state's brief before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
	After pleading guilty to criminal charges, the defendants filed
bankruptcy. Montana's Department of Revenue filed a claim against them
for the drug tax assessment.
	After a bench trial, the bankruptcy court found $208,105 due in drug
taxes.
	But the bankruptcy court cited a Supreme Court precedent to rule that
the tax was a second punishment for conduct the Kurths had already been
punished for -- possessing marijuana -- and placed defendants in
unconstitutional double jeopardy.
	Montana appealed the decision through the federal system.

"Copyright 1993 by <UPI>
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Charlie Byrne * University of Miami * Div of Marine Biology and Fisheries
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149 * Voice: (305) 361-4705
Usual disclamers apply.