Are you kidding me? $50 million of tax revenue isn’t enough to cover the costs (“Management costs of recreational cannabis outweigh tax revenue, says Hawaii legislator,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 1)?

First, as they’re doing now, lab tests would be paid for by the growers and stores, not the state. Let’s say you have to hire 50 people to manage the industry, and you pay them a living wage of $120,000 per year. That comes to $6 million. Where does the other $44 million go?

Our Legislature is so backward. It can’t even fix a leaky roof that is ruining the Hawaii Convention Center, or figure a way to build a stadium that we really don’t need.

Lawmakers throw away so much of our hard-earned tax dollars on useless pork-barrel things, and not on the things that will make life better for our residents. And now they would let $44 million go? Don’t they see that keeping marijuana illegal makes it easier for kids to get it?

On this issue, the only sane gubernatorial candidate is Lt. Gov. Josh Green. Once again, our elected officials are going in the wrong direction.

Mark Librie

Kailua

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