Certain drinking age reports, the effective date of certain changes to the requirements for issuing operator's licenses and identification cards, and repealing the tax on controlled substances (suggested as remedial legislation by the Department of Transportation)

However, most of these provisions were subject to a contingent effective date; the provisions would not become effective until the date specified in a notice provided by DOT after DOT had determined that it was ready to fully implement the REAL ID Act. On November 30, 2012, DOT published the required notice, stating that January 1, 2013, would be the effective date for full implementation of the REAL ID Act.

This bill removes the statutory references to the contingent effective date.

This bill repeals the occupational tax on controlled substances.

Under current law, the state imposes an occupational tax on a person who sells illegal controlled substances in this state. Before selling an illegal controlled substance, the person must pay the tax and affix tax stamps to the product in order to prove that the person paid the tax. In 2004, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that imposing a criminal penalty for both possessing a controlled substance and failing to pay the occupational tax on the substance violated the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution which, generally, prohibits convicting an individual twice for the same crime. See Dye v. Frank , 355 F.3d 1102 (2004).

For further information, see the Notes provided by the Law Revision Committee of the Joint Legislative Council.