Use pot shop tax to fund drug plan

Why should the citizens of Snohomish County bear the burden of a 0.2 percent sales tax hike to fight a heroin epidemic they did not create? Let’s punish businesses by driving shoppers out to other counties? That does not make sense at all!

Let’s focus on where most of the problems began, which would be health-care providers who overprescribe pain medications like oxycodone, Vicodin and Percocet. Should there be stiffer penalties or regulations against over prescribing pain medications?

What about all the tax revenue from the marijuana “pot” stores that are popping up everywhere especially along Highway 99 in south Everett, which also is one of the hardest-hit areas in this heroin epidemic? Is that just a coincidence? Where does that tax money go and should we restructure or increase that to raise the projected $25 million needed? Let’s not be so quick to increase sales tax across the board and look at other options first.

Edward Lovell

Everett