“Booze, pot, and gambling: the keys to funding K-12 education!”

That could be the new slogan for efforts to decriminalize marijuana in the state of Washington. I don’t honestly think my proposed slogan will catch on any time soon, but it should.

It emphasizes that, if decriminalization were to occur, there’s a potential uptick of government sales tax revenue involved. Both county and state government have been steaming at full throttle convincing us there’s a revenue crisis. After all the “elderly and school age children will suffer if we don’t raise taxes.” At least, that’s what our local state Sen. Haugen recently emailed to one Whidbey News-Times blogger online.

Now, in fairness, she was talking about getting rid of I-960 and an across-the-board tax increase when she said that, but hey, if it works for I-960, why not also for marijuana?

William Burnett

Oak Harbor