To the Editor:
News came to the Island recently of cuts to the state budget that heavily affect Martha’s Vineyard: $45,000 for homelessness prevention on the Vineyard, $100,000 for the Transportation Access Program administered by Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, and $15,000 for an addiction prevention program in Vineyard public schools. That’s not counting cuts to shellfish propagation programs.
Shortly after receiving news of those cuts, we heard the overhead whirl of a helicopter — usually a welcome noise as MedFlights land to transport the very sick to higher care. Or perhaps a Coast Guard helicopter is off to save those in peril on the sea — always a comforting noise.
Recent helicopter noises over the Island did not give this Islander any warm fuzzy feelings such as she gets when the lifesavers fly over. These guys were here to spend taxpayers’ cash — lots of it — on a program of dubious merit. It was the annual marijuana flyover by Massachusetts State Police in search of backyard pot plants.
After the helicopter landed, eight men in three State Police cruisers perused the Island in furtherance of the flyover. In West Tisbury they removed a single pot plant from a friend’s vegetable garden, then sent a message by slitting her garden hose. In Vineyard Haven, eight men removed a single marijuana plant from a terracotta pot in another friend’s backyard, again damaging the garden hose used to water the offending pot plant.
Neither friend has so far been arrested. I doubt the State Police want to be laughed out of court. An already overcrowded court system does not welcome minor pot cases.
I am an elderly woman pushing 80. I do not smoke pot, nor do I grow it. But I do know government waste when I see it, and this annual pot patrol qualifies.
Where does this money come from? And can we as citizens lobby to see these funds redirected to fund more worthy programs? Perhaps the $15,000 for an addiction prevention program in Vineyard public schools recently cut from the state budget could be refunded with funds now spent by the State Police on their annual pot patrol. Or maybe the $45,000 for homeless prevention could be restored with pot patrol funds, for drug use is surely a piece of the homelessness puzzle.
Anne Ryall Sylvester
Vineyard Haven
