ARREST OF UI PLAYER RAISES PROFILE OF DRUG TAX STAMP LAW

When two University of Iowa football players were arrested on drug
charges in Iowa City early Saturday morning, one of them was charged
with a drug tax stamp violation.

It's a law Iowa has had since 1990, requiring a tax on something
that's already illegal -- possessing certain amounts of controlled substances.

"The whole purpose of the statute was to give police another tool in
their arsenal to prosecute drug traffickers," Assistant Linn County
Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said.

Someone caught with enough of the drug but not the stamp to show the
tax is paid may be charged with a crime that carries a fine, plus the
standard possession of a controlled substance or possession with
intent to deliver.

If convicted in Johnson County District Court, [redacted], faces up
to five years in prison for failing to buy a drug tax stamp for the
prescription drugs police accused him of possessing.

Almost half of the country's states impose a tax on illegal drugs.
The last stamps sold in Iowa were in March 2007, one for $215 and a
second for $300. The stamps expire after six months.

"We've never had a case where someone had the foresight to purchase
the drug tax stamp," Vandersanden said.

The tax is $5 a gram for processed marijuana; $750 for an unprocessed
marijuana plant; $250 a gram on other illegal substances; and $400
for 10 doses of an illegal drug not sold by weight. Interest accrues
at a rate of 7 percent a year.

An ounce, or roughly 28 grams of marijuana, for instance, can sell
from $100 to $300, depending on its potency, according to
www.e-stoned.com, so the tax could be more than a dealer's gross profit.

When the drug tax first was imposed, Iowa hadn't printed any of the
stamps, Vandersanden said. But a defense attorney successfully argued
it was unfair to charge people with not having a non-existent stamp,
he said, so the state began producing the stamp.

The next hiccup was that collectors started buying the stamps. "That
really annoyed the Department of Revenue," Vandersanden said.

So the minimum price of a stamp was then set at $215 to discourage collectors.

Last year, drug tax stamp fines were assessed in 166 cases for a
little more than $3 million. The state collected $241,760 of that.
Since 1990, the state has assessed $39.5 million and collected $4.8
million. The money goes into the state's general fund.

According to police reports, UI public safety officers found 21 units
of oxycodone and 24 doses of carisolprodol in [redacted] residence
hall desk, but no prescription, about 3 a.m. Saturday. Oxycodone is
prescribed for pain and carisolprodol is a muscle relaxer.

His other charges, two counts of unlawful possession of prescriptions
drugs, are serious misdemeanors which carry up to a year in jail on
each charge.

[redacted] admitted marijuana police found on his desk belonged to
him, a criminal complaint against Nelson states. He was arrested for
possession of marijuana, a serious misdemeanor carrying a penalty of
up to a year in jail. He was not charged with a drug tax stamp violation.

Both men were released from the Johnson County Jail on their
recognizance Saturday morning.