NASHVILLE - Starting Saturday, Tennessee drug dealers and moonshiners will also become Tennessee tax dodgers unless they've purchased new stamps now available at state Department of Revenue offices.

"The way this is set up, once anyone comes into possession of an illegal substance, they have 48 hours to purchase a stamp," said Al Laney, the department's director of tax enforcement.

The taxpayer needs only to say what sort of illegal substance he or she possesses and how much, then pay the appropriate amount of money - $50 per gram for cocaine, for example. The person need not give a name and the law provides that purchase of the stamp will be kept confidential and forbids revenue officials from asking any questions.

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"We are serious about this, and we do not want the public to take this as a frivolous undertaking," Laney said.

The proposal was nicknamed "the crack tax" by the sponsors, who say the new levy will provide much-needed money for law enforcement efforts.