The Weed Tax

The following is a true story. Not one detail has been tidied up for anyone's benefit or detriment.

Last Saturday Mrs. SWIND and our SWNIDish self were driving to a local elementary school to join some brothers and sisters in painting some classrooms. Driving carefully in traffic just a few hundred yards from our destination, the SWNIDish heart sank when we saw in our rearview mirror a deputy sherrif's car with lights twinkling in our direction.

Pulling over into a nearby parking lot, the kind deputy informed us that our registration had expired some two months previously. Embarrassed that we had forgotten that the car was registered on Mrs. SWNID's birthday, we awaited our citation, irritated that scarce SWNIDish funds would doubtless be demanded to punish our illegal behavior. The kind officer took into account that the SWNIDish driving record is Seldom Wrong and so mercifully charged us with failure to display, a significantly lesser fine than driving without registration.

Said fine was detailed on a flyer that accompanied our citation. It was $114. Also detailed were other fines for other offenses. Our eye went to one fine in particular. It was for possession of marijuana. Cost of the offense: $105.

That's right: forgetting your vehicle registration can be knocked down to a fine that is still nine dollars more than the fine for possessing small amounts of an illegal narcotic.

This "fine," for those who enjoy weed, is hardly a disincentive. It functions more like a randomly applied, expensive-to-collect tax on marijuana use. We suspect that the odds of getting fined for marijuana possession are high enough that the average fine per joint is less than the tax per cigarette collected by the local convenience store.

We thought that the citizens of our state ought to know the seriousness with which the War on Drugs is being waged.