Lawmakers are about to weed out a law that’s overgrown its usefulness.
A seldom used and apparently unconstitutional part of the General Laws may soon be stricken, if an outside section of the state Senate’s fiscal 2023 budgets makes it past muster during Tuesday’s debate.
“This court concluded that the assessment of the tax on essentially the same activity for which a dealer had received criminal sanctions was punishment prohibited by principles of double jeopardy,” the Supreme Judicial Court wrote in 1998, upholding a tax board’s decision to abate a dealer’s tax liability for their illegal drugs.
