Janelle Irwin Taylor
More news on Florida’s war on potheads.
The Senate Finance and Tax Committee unanimously approved a “blunt wrap” tax Tuesday. The type of rolling paper used to wrap cigars (or giant marijuana joints) would be subject to tobacco taxes under the proposed law.
Here’s the deal: Lawmakers really, really wants to tax your blunt wrappers. But they’ve hit some bumps. A court found this year that the flavored wrappers could not be taxed the same as tobacco because they aren’t actually a tobacco product. The wrappers are made primarily of paper and flavoring.
The comparison was that calling the wrappers a tobacco product was like calling a piece of paper loose wood.
During that committee meeting there probably wasn’t much mention of what most people use them to wrap, but no mind.
In the wake of the clearly devastating legal blow — taxes are only cool among Florida’s uber-conservative Legislature when it’s taxing things that are bad for you, mmmkay — lawmakers just decided to make it a law instead.
Makes sense.
When a smoker goes into the local Quickie Mart to grab a pack of smokes, he or she pays a boatload in taxes for that product. Likewise for those DIY smokers who buy loose tobacco.
But for the tokers out there (those who smoke marijuana cigarettes) there’s no such tax burden. First, weed’s illegal. That means no buying it in 7-Eleven and certainly no taxes. Drug dealers don’t burden themselves with tax laws.
So, since legalizing marijuana for medical use isn’t so much a thing in Florida, let alone letting people use the drug for pure recreation, why not tax a part of pot-smoking that is legal — blunt wraps?
Now there’s a solution if ever there was one. Those are some smart dudes up there in Tallahassee.
And again, what happened to that whole taxes-are-bad mentality Florida lawmakers seem so married to? Isn’t this an additional tax?
But don’t worry, Cheech. Even though the measure passed a committee unanimously, it’s probably not going anywhere. The House has not yet proposed a companion bill.
