Income tax purity and 280E

The anti-ad feature of 280E will be a hard sell at a marijuana tax panel for the National Tax Association in Tampa today.  The audience is mostly economists.  Many economists start with the notion that all income should be taxed alike – capital gains and ordinary income, for instance.  And many think deductions should not discriminate, either, so corporate integration fans don’t like favoring interest over dividends.  So singling out marijuana ads (I’d add ads for tobacco and alcohol) will find principled objections.  But we’re not going to tax marijuana like milk.  Excise taxes are OK, but since Free Speech means we can’t ban ads, taxation is a middle ground.