Guest Blog: Mass. Gov. Patrick Proposes to Open Drug Clinics After Legalizing Heroine for State Profits

By Slava Menn

Well, I may be exaggerating just a tad, but here's how he justified the illnesses that casinos will bring to Massachusetts:

"For a few unfortunate individuals gaming is more than recreation, and we have provided for them as well. We have proposed to dedicate 2.5% of state gaming revenues to prevent and treat compulsive gambling, as well as drug and alcohol abuse and other related public health concerns, the largest such allocation in the country."

So let me get this straight.  You’re going to:

• Legalize gambling, a highly addictive recreational activity
• Make money off the people who can’t afford it, but...
• ...then help them with the addiction that you’ve caused.

Genius PR move!

That’s like Pablo Escobar opening a cocaine rehab clinic, or Phillip Morris starting a cancer center.

Sure, Mass Lotto brings in a lot of cash.  But where can you buy a scratch ticket? On any corner in Dorchester, Lowell, New Bedford.  But you’ll be hard-pressed to play “Jumbo Bucks” or “Frosty the Doughman” in Brookline, Newton, or Weston.  Tax the poor and feed the middle class and rich?  That doesn’t sound right.

Though this “Lotto Poor Tax” brings in $900 Million, Massachusetts still has a deficit of $1 Billion.   Don’t forget, we’re state that’s notorious for making bad decisions over big bucks.  We got screwed out of $15 Billion and 20 years over this Big Dig debauchery.

We don’t need another crutch. We need to rebuild the foundation.

Deval, you’re a smart man with a creative team.  Can’t you think of other ways to ways to make money?  Here’s some ideas:

• Bring in Corporate Cost Cutters – experts that go into big businesses and show them how they’re wasting money.
• Incentivize Fortune 500 companies to open offices in Massachusetts.  Big revenues, big salaries, big taxes.
• Instead providing bad things, up the tax on bad things: cigarettes, bad booze (Bud Light, Generic Vodka, Yellowtail Wine), gas guzzlers, energy wasters, excessive trash, etc.

On this course, the Casinos will be making billions for a handful of wealthy, taxing thousands of working class, and generating millions in revenue.  But Massachusetts will still be in the red.

Then what happens.  Will we have to appoint a Tony Montana to get us into the white?

Comments

[Yianni Garcia]

good points.