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Tax Stamps, Drug Deals Don't Stick
William Weir | Hartford Courant | 07/07/2006

The state Department of Revenue Services is on the brink of a milestone: selling its 200th drug tax stamp - those small stickers that illegal drug dealers need to stay in the good graces of state tax officials.

Since the state passed the "grass tax" act ("All illicit drugs must have Connecticut tax stamps permanently affixed," it reads in part) the stamps haven't flown out the door. It's taken 15 years to sell the first 199, including one last week to The Courant. Of those, all but two have been of the $10 marijuana stamps. The state has sold one $200 stamp and another for $500.

As far as anyone knows, none has been sold to drug dealers. State officials assume that most of the stamps have gone to collectors and curiosity seekers.

Seeking another way to penalize drug dealers, lawmakers passed the law in 1991. It was a good year for offbeat legislation - adultery was decriminalized (prompted by a handful of arrests in 1990), and the state established a state composer (Charles Ives) and a state fossil (the Eubrontes dinosaur footprints).

The oddity of requiring dealers to purchase stamps for their illicit stashes didn't escape the lawmakers, even as they overwhelmingly voted in favor of it.

"People suggested that the stamps should show Cheech and Chong looking at each other and stuff like that," says Rep. John W. Thompson, D-Manchester, one of the legislators who co-sponsored it. At the time, he says, prisons were overcrowded and tax was considered another way to penalize dealers without further burdening the prison system.

Though the state technically taxes $3.50 per gram of marijuana, the minimum tax stamp is $10. There's also a $500 marijuana stamp. If you're dealing in cocaine or heroin, things can get costly - the minimum "controlled substance" stamp goes for $200. And for the big-time dealer, there's the $10,000 stamp. (No one has ever bought it.)

Stamps can be purchased in person at the revenue department's office at 25 Sigourney St. in Hartford. Revenue officials stress that the process is anonymous, so dealers needn't worry about self-incrimination. (This also keeps the law constitutionally sound.)

Recreational users needn't worry at all, as the law applies only to those with more than 42.5 grams of marijuana, 7 or more grams of any controlled substances sold by weight, or 10 or more dosage units of any controlled substance not sold by weight.

While the stamps theoretically keep dealers up to date on their taxes, they offer no protection from any of the state's other laws concerning drugs.

For a dealer who has been busted, not having the stamps only compounds problems.

Failure to affix a tax stamp is a Class D felony, and violators can face up to six years in prison and have to pay a penalty of $10,000, on top of the total amount of taxes assessed.

Selling 200 stamps in 15 years is actually impressive considering the uninspired design. Green for marijuana and red for controlled substances, the slightly reflective stamps don't look appreciably different from the registration stickers on license plates.

Compare that to the designs on Nebraska's and Texas' stamps, which sport garish designs fit for a heavy metal album cover or biker tattoo.

Texas has a grim reaper on one stamp and a skull and crossbones on another. Nebraska's also goes with the skull and crossbones theme, and is even more ornately detailed. (In a nice touch, the crossbones consist of a joint and a syringe.)

Of the more than 20 states that sell drug stamps, these have been particularly popular among specialty collectors.

Eric Jackson, of the American Revenue Association, says drug stamps have been of interest to some stamp collectors.

"Well, it's a curious tax - it's a tax on something that's illegal to possess," says Jackson, who lives in Pennsylvania. "It's kind of convoluted in some ways."

While the state has raised very little money from the sale of the stamps, it has done better with collecting back taxes from dealers.

As of May, the state has collected $56,373 for this fiscal year from tax delinquent dealers. Last fiscal year, it collected $58,999 and $120,578 the year before.

The revenue department receives most of its referrals for further investigation from the state police's statewide narcotics task force.

On a standardized form, police officials note the amount and type of a suspect's drugs and whether tax stamps were affixed (always checked "no"). Sarah E. Kaufman, spokeswoman for the revenue department, says the office receives 100 to 150 referrals each year.

Revenue officials pursue only the cases that offer a reasonable expectation of collecting any taxes.

Although collection hasn't reached the $400,000 a year that some predicted when the tax went into effect, it's enough to give some officials confidence in the law.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal thinks the law could be more effective, given a few adjustments.

"My opinion is that it still makes good sense, and is sound public policy," he says. "It's produced some revenue for the state, but more importantly, it sends a message that drug use is hardly costless. Indeed, it imposes a tremendous burden socially, economically and emotionally on our state, and its taxpayers, not to mention the families."

Police departments might enforce the laws more frequently, he says, if the state shared some of the revenue directly with the departments. Also, he thinks better education about the laws for enforcement agencies would go a long way.

Many police officials and even prosecutors have only a vague sense of how the laws work.

Some know nothing about it.

Bonnie Winchester, spokeswoman for the New Haven Police Department, was beside herself when told of the stamps.

"How does that make any sense? What does it get you?" she says. "I've never heard of anything that strange."

Even in Madison, where officers know about the law, the charge hasn't appeared in the town's police log in some time.

Lt. Allen Girard says the last case he remembers was in the 1990s.

That's partly because most of the busts the town police make now are for small, street-level amounts. And the department had significantly more manpower to pursue the charge a few years ago.

"I don't have any problem with the law; I think it's a good law, and we use it when and if we can," he says.

Girard says he is familiar with the law mainly because he knows people in the state Department of Revenue Services. He is in the minority, he says, even among law officials.

Sometimes he'll hand out brochures about the tax. "The reaction I get from people is `What?' - they think it's a joke."

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