Pot Profits Should Stay Here
To the editor:
After reading about Provincetown’s financial woes it dawned on me: why couldn’t this town and others run the marijuana distribution business instead of outsourcing it to Curaleaf and all of the other shell companies that the Russian oligarchs have set up in North America?
How much of the billions of dollars goes to Putin? How much of it goes into interfering with our elections? Between the monetary windfall and Putin’s secret meetings with the Orange Cheeto in the White House, it makes me wonder: what else can we do to make the U.S.S.R. great again?
Our budget deficit has nearly doubled and our trade deficit has exceeded expectations under the Trump administration’s reign of terror on our democracy. I won’t go on ad nauseam about Putin’s puppet.
We need to put a stop to enemy countries coming here, taking out our money, and then using it against us. We must stop them from doing big business in the pot distribution and other drug opportunities that come down the road.
These lucrative businesses and others should be run by local and state authorities, and the money put to use in education, help for the poor, public housing (a desperate need), etc. A little eminent domain, please!
I, for one, will not be using Curaleaf or any of the other Russian-owned businesses. We need to get out of the quagmire our country is in right now.
Butch Mullaney
Provincetown
Herring River Terrapins
To the editor:
Wellfleet’s Herring River estuary is the northernmost range for the northern diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin) in the United States. This salt marsh turtle is listed as “threatened” in Massachusetts by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. The Herring River is an important nesting, foraging, and nursery habitat for terrapins. I have monitored the habitat utilization of diamondback terrapins in the Herring River estuary for the past nine years.
My monitoring shows that the Chequessett Neck Road dike is a major impediment to the movement of terrapins in the estuary. The dike prevents terrapins from reaching potential nesting, foraging, and nursery habitats. In addition, as terrapins climb up to the road in attempts to reach the landward side of the dike, they are sometimes killed by autos.
Based on my observations and monitoring data, I predict that restoration of tidal flow to the Herring River estuary and other aspects of the restoration will be a benefit to the species. This proposed project also aligns with the goals of the Regional Conservation Plan developed by the Diamondback Terrapin Working Group, which calls for habitat restoration throughout the terrapin’s range.
There are many reasons to support the Herring River Restoration Project. Protection of threatened populations of wildlife is yet another important goal for the project.
Barbara Brennessel
Wellfleet
The writer is a board member of Friends of Herring River.
