Texas Marijuana Taxes

The Texas Tax Code requires our State comptroller to produce tax stamps for controlled substances. Theoretically, you buy these stamps and then place them on your bag of weed, meth, or crack.

How much are these stamps? $200 per gram for eachcontrolled substance except for pot. Pot is a much more reasonable $3.50 per gram.

For some reason Texas laws refer to marijuana as marihuana. Where did they get that spelling?

Does the comptroller just fax buyer information to the cops? They are not supporsed to. It is illegal (class B misdemeanor) for the comptroller to release a buyer’s information. However, I am not sure the State would be interested in prosecuting such a case.

Not A Defense
If you do buy these stamps, your drugs are not legal. From the tax code-

Nothing in this chapter provides a defense or affirmative defense to, exception to,
or immunity from prosecution under the penal laws of this state relating to controlled substances, counterfeit substances, simulated controlled substances, or marihuana.

These taxes are obviously not meant to generate revenue. They are merely another tool to take money from defendants. The real crime is the sales tax Texas loses on the daily marihuana sales in our state. Instead of wasting millions on incarceration we should be generating revenue.

don foard says:

March 7, 2008 at 7:12 pm

They will tell you that this law has been effectively obsolete for years. It never really amounted to anything; of course nobody bought the stamps.

March 7, 2008 at 7:18 pm

the h and j have the same sound in spanish. it was originally spelled marihuana and still is in a lot of legal and scientific contexts

Michael in LH says:

March 7, 2008 at 9:44 pm

Effectively obsolete? What does that mean? I think I remember a court case where some state tried to collect on such a stamp and the court through it out. I wonder if anyone in Texas has ever been prosecuted for it.

Doran Williams says:

March 8, 2008 at 6:49 am

I bought a few (10?) of these stamps when they were first issued, framed them and hung them on my office wall. They are possibly the most grotesque tax stamp ever printed, with the image of “death”, like the death character from the Bergman film. Nice conversation pieces, and interesting from a stamp collector’s point of view.

Reauxsted says:

March 9, 2008 at 5:19 pm

I’m no attorney…but couldn’t it be argued that the state itself has affirmed the low-harm status of marijuana simply by the difference in the tax per gram? Indeed, that is an amount that could be considered an equitable tax for retailers at some future point in time.

Willy Adams says:

March 29, 2008 at 8:51 pm

Yea, my buddy was arrested for selling marihuana, then they arrested him again and charged him for selling marijuana without a marihuana tax stamp, really. I can’t remember the exact wording but it was in the local paper. This was in a small east Texas town, ridiculous.