As JLF intern Paul Messino explained in Monday’s Raleigh News & Observer, North Carolina has for 15 years, taxed “any controlled substance (marijuana, cocaine, etc.), illicit spirituous liquor (“moonshine”), mash and illicit mixed beverages.” Messino explained how one complies and gets the tax stamps, and that the state has generated $78 million through fines on those who fail to do so. He closed with this tongue-in-cheek advice on how to change this strange tax to help solve the state’s fiscal problem. “One way would be to encourage more drug dealers to come to North Carolina, make compliance with the law more impossible by hiding the necessary forms within the bowels of Revenue Department, halve the 48 hours dealers are allowed to apply for and receive their stamps, and then ramp up illegal drug enforcement,” Messino wrote. “Revenue collected in this manner should not be earmarked, as is the current case; it should all be thrown into the money pit – er, General Fund.”
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