de Jon's

"Cannabis & Controlled Substances" Tax

LATE BREAKING NEWS

The State of Arizona has repealed the drug tax law. Presumably they didn't
want to have to worry about whether a judge would finally make it impossible
for them to prosecute drug dealers who had purchased the tax stamps. At any
rate, you can no longer buy the stamps from the state for 35 cents each if
you paid a $100 license fee. Now they are only available from other
collectors, like me, who bought them while they were available. I still have
both the original version, and the new reprinted version (after the big rush
on the MJ stamps because of the court case described below). My price is $10
for each.

Genuine Revenue Stamps (Tax Stamps) for Illegal Substances

July 1, 1983, Arizona was the first state to pass a "Cannabis & Controlled
Substances" tax in order to increase the penalties applied against illegal
drug dealers and users, and to print up a stamp to show that the tax has
been paid. Having this stamp does NOT make it legal for you to possess, use,
or sell these items. However, if you are caught in the state of Arizona with
Marijuana or other controlled substances and do not have the proper revenue
stamp applied to your product, you are subject to fines and forfeitures for
tax evasion, in addition to the usual penalties for possessing illegal
items.

In order to purchase the stamps from the state, you have to apply for an
official illegal drug dealers license (which costs $100 by the way). The
assumption of course is that anyone dealing in illegal drugs will not bother
to purchase the license. Although the law requires that the name & address
of anyone purchasing the license and the stamps be kept confidential, you do
have to supply the state with your name, address, phone number, and social
security number. One doubts that a criminal would be willing to provide that
information. Since the law was passed over ten years ago,only 18 people have
purchased the license (all presumably stamp collectors and stamp dealers).
This includes Flying Buffalo's license. (For the record, Flying Buffalo Inc
does not deal in illegal substances or condone the use of same. However we
have always been fascinated with revenue stamps of all kinds.) [See the PS
below]

After Arizona came up with this brilliant revenue-raising idea, over twenty
other states have passed various Marijuana and drug taxes. There are tax
stamps for Marijuana, Controlled substances, LSD, psychedelic mushrooms, and
others. Unfortunately some of the stamps are quite expensive. (They range in
price from 35 cents to $4000.00). Some of the expensive ones (according to
the State Revenue Department) have never been purchased by anyone. For the
first ten years, of the Arizona stamps, 83 sheets of the 1 gram Cannabis
stamp were sold, and 3 sheets of the Cannabis 1 ounce stamp were sold. ($10)
No one has ever bought any of the Cannabis one kilo, ($352.74) or any of the
three controlled substances (1 gram, $8.80; 1 ounce, $250; and 1 kilo,
$4000). Remember that you have to buy an entire sheet of 50 stamps.
Please note that the stamps themselves are perfectly legal, and it is legal
for me to sell them to you. (With the exception of Wisconsin. Supposedly it
is illegal to resell the Wisconsin stamps in the state of Wisconsin. I'm not
sure this is constitutional, but I haven't got the time to fight it, so if
you live in Wisconsin I don't care to sell you the Wisconsin stamps. ) They
merely indicate that I have voluntarily paid the tax in order to get one of
the stamps. These are genuine tax stamps issued by various state
governments, and quite a collectible item.

North Dakota has "Demonitized" it's MJ tax stamps. They say they have only
collected about $1000 on their MJ tax, so they've discontinued it. They sold
1000 sets of their three stamps to collectors (it took one week to sell them
all). I was able to purchase a very limited number of them. I am planning to
sell these to collectors for $90 for a set of 3. When you order it, let me
know if you want a photocopy of the letter from the state tax commissioner
to the fellow who purchased the stamps for me. The letter mostly says the
above, in a lot more words.

Since I wrote the above, something interesting has happened. The authorities
in Arizona arrested a fellow who was selling marijuana, and he had a license
and had put the tax stamps on his "product". A judge decided that if the
state sold him a license, they shouldn't arrest him for selling the product
so licensed. So he dismissed the charges against the fellow. The last I
heard, the state had appealed and the case was still wending its way through
court. Personally, I think the fellow is going to eventually end up in jail,
but in the meantime, suddenly the license and the stamps are very popular.
So popular, that they have sold out the original stamps and printed a new
edition.

So, why am I telling you all this? Flying Buffalo is a game company. We
design and sell role playing games, card games, and other fantasy and
science fiction games. We don't really deal in stamps, and we definitely
don't deal in illegal substances (whatever the current legal status).
However I think the whole situation of selling a tax stamp for an illegal
product is hilarious, and I have decided to make the stamps available to the
general public. You can buy the stamps from me through Flying Buffalo. You
can use the "Flying Buffalo Store" to order them with your credit card, or
you can fax the card number to 480-994-1170, or you can mail us a check or
money order to: Flying Buffalo Inc, PO Box 1467, Scottsdale, AZ 85252.
Please remember, although there is some confusion at present, these stamps
do NOT make it legal for anyone to possess or sell any of these illegal
substances. I'm just selling the stamps as a novelty.