While the rest of the
country -- or at least California, Colorado, and a few others --
virtually legalizes pot, Florida is going retro.
Bills making their way through the Florida House and Senate would impose a
25 percent tax on pipes with carburetors. Worse, it argues that these
pipes couldn't be sold unless 75 percent of a shop's sales were tobacco.
OK, I'll acknowledge that a pipe with that kind of opening is used primarily for rolling. And I'll agree that Florida badly needs money.
But this ain't gonna earn more tax revenue, and it will restrict
business. In a state where painkillers like Oxycontin are virtually
unrestricted, the boys in Tally have picked the wrong target.
But
this bill has already been approved by at
least one committee in the House. And the Palm Beach Post
notes that at least one legislator, Chris Dorworth, a Republican from
Lake Mary, doesn't even know what these pipes are.
It has also
drawn the ire of smoke shop owners, who
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have gathered hundreds of signatures to oppose it.
"The state
and the feds are attacking this war on drugs ass backwards," writes
one.
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