TAXES ON ILLEGAL DRUGS AGAIN RULED CONSTITUTIONAL

Raleigh (AP) - Splitting with the federal courts, the state Court of
Appeals has ruled again that North Carolina's taxes on illegal drugs
are not a criminal penalty.

Joan Gore Milligan sued the state for a refund of the $12,252,95 in
taxes and penalties she was charged after drug agents seized more than
2,200 grams of marijuana in a 1995 raid at her home. She paid the
taxes under protest.

In her lawsuit, she said the state taxes on marijuana and other drugs
amount to a criminal penalty that is levied without due process, which
would place her in unconstitutional double jeopary when criminal
charges also are filed.

"This court has held that the drug tax does not contain the 'punitive
characteristics' necessary to transfer it into a criminal penalty,"
Judge Edward Greene wrote for the three-judge panel Tuesday. The court
refused her demand for a refund.

The state revised, and lowered, the taxes it charges on drugs after
the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the taxes were so
high they amounted to a penalty.

"We are aware the Fourth Circuit has held the North Carolina drug tax
to constitute a criminal penaly," Greene wrote in a footnote to the
opinion. "We are not, however, bound by that decision."