Letter: Lottery, marijuana can help pay for rail transit

I read in the newspaper we have a money problem: how to generate a budget for the operation and maintenance of our future rail system?

The current standard solution, pushed by our leaders, is raising taxes on various items that impact our lives, and then raising them again. Same people in government, same knee-jerk responses.

Monies that could go to fixing our infrastructure, schools, beach erosion will be heading down the rabbit hole to address the hemorrhaging rail project. Or, as 48 other states do, legalize gaming. Don’t play the guardian of moral correctness: Legalize gaming.

Or do what Canada and 10 states have done: Legalize recreational marijuana. It will add millions to the economy, create many hundreds of jobs, free up scarce police resources and stop the huge racial disparities in marijuana enforcement. Don’t play the guardian of moral correctness. Legalize cannabis. Hypocrisy isn’t a policy.

Chuck Cohen

Kalama Valley

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