Marijuana: Election money better spent on treatment

Re: “Don’t push pot problem into unincorporated county” (Viewpoint, 4-10).

I agree that there is no legitimate benefit to smoking marijuana. How could there be a benefit to inhaling smoke from any burning material into your lungs? That being said, the recreational use of marijuana was approved by the voters of this state.

Pierce County Councilwoman Joyce McDonald asserts that the increase of homelessness within our community is the result of legalized marijuana use and that her neighbors are “sick and tired of picking up discarded needles.” Those needles are not the result of reefer madness; they represent a much more dire problem.

The problem is heroin. The reasons for the resurgence of heroin require more space than this venue allows, but the resurgence is real and tragic. Our County Council has agreed to spend several hundred thousand dollars for marijuana business enforcement and is now spending several hundred thousand dollars on a nonbinding advisory vote regarding marijuana businesses.

Non-binding! I wonder how that money might have helped heroin addicts who can’t afford a drug assessment, much less the six- to nine-month wait for treatment.

Politics is a curious endeavor.

This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Marijuana: Election money better spent on treatment."