DEAR EDITOR:

I find it interesting, and a bit amusing, the recent lamenting of several local elected officials regarding Gov. DeWine’s move to stop a portion of the marijuana tax money from returning to local governments. These officials, including Austintown Trustee Robert Santos, Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown and elected officials from Struthers, Niles and Warren, were all in favor of marijuana dispensaries opening in their communities when they believed they were going to receive a piece of the financial pie, or shall we say the marijuana brownie! However, now that there is a chance these officials will not see any of the financial benefit of legal marijuana sales — totaling more than $320 million since just last summer — they are upset.

As a matter of fact, the Niles mayor and others have publicly stated that the “sole” reason they allowed marijuana dispensaries to open in their communities was because of the tax money they were hoping to collect.

Did these elected officials, and many others who voted to legalize marijuana and bring it into our communities just choose to ignore all of the negative consequences and problems that come with legalized recreational marijuana simply because of an opportunity to collect additional tax money? Problems such as an increase in drug use and addiction, an increase in teenage marijuana use, an increase in impaired drivers and related traffic accidents, an increase in child overdoses on high-level THC marijuana products / edibles, an increase in mental health problems, an increase in homelessness and employment problems, and an increase in crime in many communities. And, of course, the problem recently mentioned by Gov. DeWine of not being able to walk down the street with your children in many of our communities without smelling the lovely odor of marijuana!

Did these individuals and others choose to ignore or minimize these problems for an opportunity to make a buck?

It appears as though many of our elected officials supported the legalization of marijuana and bringing dispensaries into our communities based solely, if not mostly, on the chance to collect more tax dollars.

I learned long ago that if something is a bad idea, it doesn’t really matter how much money you make doing it — it’s still a bad idea.

CHUCK HILLMAN

Boardman