Jay Patrick

I don’t think I have ever heard “what Redmond needs to make it a successful town is a marijuana dispensary.”

If you didn’t hear that statement at the council meeting on May 16 you weren’t where you needed to be.

Unfortunately, there were no news reporters or TV cameras either. City Council held a meeting with the opportunity to gather public input. They will be deciding the fate of Redmond and whether that includes pot shops on the corner or not.

I will share some of the memorable stories because this event was important, this topic is life changing and needs to be on top of your news cycle. We should have seen churches, nonprofits concerned about community and our kids and city businesses at that meeting voicing their concerns. People need to share their opinions and reasons why they think that adding pot shops is unsafe for our kids to be exposed to.

Telling our city leaders inviting that dispensaries into Redmond only gives our children more opportunity to try something that is not good for developing brains. That is an indisputable fact. Our state has already passed a bill (Measure 110) that infers taking drugs is just fine, just do it in moderation.

What a sad and dangerous message to send to our kids as well as ourselves. All this with little to no recovery clinic systems to help when people find themselves with drug addictions or issues.

We went from last year’s budget of $128 million in 2022-23 to $158 million in 2023-24. All without drug money. We don’t need the small amount of revenue we might get along with all the issues, many of which don’t make it to a report anywhere. Common sense, let’s use it.

One person spoke and asked the question, “It is not can we do it, rather, should we do it? Is it the right decision, is it the best choice for our kids?”

Another person who was a retired principal said marijuana, other drugs and alcohol were terrible for our kids. He saw it daily in his office. He dealt with kids and families nonstop. He also talked about his research and he found in all the cities and counties it could be boiled down to the two pros for having dispensaries. They were, financial and political gain. He asked council to please do the right thing and vote no for dispensaries.

The next person spoke of being a school counselor for years trying to get kids who were smoking pot through to graduation. He spent a lot of staff time with the families and kids trying to make their school experience successful, some didn’t get to have that positive outcome, they couldn’t escape the marijuana habit. He spent five years running a drug/alcohol recovery program. Two of the hardest things to recover from for those in the program were pornography and marijuana. Some of the participants could not get off marijuana, it was just too hard. Then he talked of his high school baseball teams and the successes there. When the kids came to play, the rules were no drinking or smoking marijuana during the season. He believes that is why they won the several state titles they did.

One lady spoke that we should continue to strive to bring family businesses to our city. Bringing the positive ideas and family businesses not the negative, hurtful businesses that tear apart families. She also spoke how her husband and son were in a crash nearly killing them both which was caused by someone high on marijuana.

Another person shared he lost an employee who was off drugs for years and went to visit family in California last week and smoked marijuana that was laced with Fentanyl and died.

The Redmond School Board had a long letter asking the council to stay away from putting dispensaries in town, they are not positive for our kids. It was a very substantial letter signed by the entire school board.

The drug addiction and care facilities in this state are the worst in the nation. Marijuana dispensaries will not add a solution to that terrible statistic but will only make it worse. Health, mental illness, anxiety, suicide, increase demand on law enforcement adding to the effects of Measure 110.

CDC states that marijuana causes mental issues, memory and affects learning. Young brains are affected more than adults. Is it the right thing to open the door to more drugs in our community that will only destroy families?

All the above was talked about by the folks at the council meeting. I ask you who read this to write comments and send them to the city for council to read. We must speak up if we want to be heard.

Perhaps we need to ask council to bring another vote to the citizens so we can vote no again to the mayor and council’s question of putting marijuana in town.