BOSTON – Sandwich State Representative Randy Hunt is pushing a plan for money from the state’s Marijuana Regulation Fund to be used for education, prevention and treatment of substance abuse.
Speaking on the House floor last week, Hunt said there needs to be more of an effort into prevention and early intervention for our youth.
“We need to deal with our kids – our students in the schools,” Hunt said. “We need to put more effort into prevention and education so that all of those people will not get to the point where we are dealing with the cost of addiction treatment.”
The proposed amendment would use 15 percent of the taxes generated from the sale of recreational marijuana. The amendment did not get through the House, but Hunt says he will continue advocating for the issue.
“To be able to deal with this for the next 20 years we need to have a dedicated source of funding that is not subject to the whims of the budget debate that we have every year, but it guaranteed,” Hunt said.
He said the issue needs to be put to rest and that the community needs to get its arms around substance use disorders.
Hunt said the issue needs to be treated similar to how tobacco was handled on a national basis.
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