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Pasco Letters to the Editor for Feb. 16

 
Published Feb. 12, 2018

A vote against Pasco's jail bond issue

There are two stories on the front page of the Feb. 9 Pasco Times that drew my attention.

The top headline reports that the Pasco County commissioners are discussing submitting a $185 million bond issue to the voters to finance an expansion of the detention center by 1,000 beds.

There is a separate article on the same front page that relates to increased methamphetamine use in Pasco. The article contains a graph showing about one fourth of all drug arrests in 2017 were for meth.

More importantly to me, the same graph showed that over half of all drug arrests in Pasco are for marijuana. It would seem, therefore, that if we quit jailing people for marijuana, we would not need any new beds for prisoners.

With all due respect to our Sheriff — and I think we have a very good one — I will not be voting for this bond issue so we can house more people for smoking a joint.

Ander Gibbs, Dade City