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Kansas court ruling puts skids on drug tax stamp law

 

 

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas Supreme Court ruling has prompted prosecutors in one of the state’s largest counties to dismiss some drug tax-stamp charges and vow to not file them in the future.

The court ruled last month in a Salina case that a defendant can’t be convicted of both possessing marijuana and possessing the same marijuana without a tax stamp.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett says he won’t be filing new tax-stamp charges without exceptional circumstances.

The court’s decision marks a reversal of an earlier ruling in which it upheld the 1987 Kansas drug tax-stamp law, calling one a drug offense and the other a tax offense.

Its ruling last month said both offenses arose from the same conduct, thus constituting a single crime.

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