LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vote for MEDWAY anti-drug levy

As your Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney, I can attest to the tremendous asset that Wayne County citizens enjoy having the MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agency working to combat drug trafficking in our community.

Drug trafficking and drug addiction have been, and continue to be, a serious crisis in our community. MEDWAY is the only law enforcement agency in our county that exclusively investigates drug crimes. The dedicated men and women of MEDWAY are combating this poisonous scourge by helping to reduce the availability of dangerous drugs in our community, educating citizens, including our youth, about the dangers of drug abuse and drug addiction, and by collaborating with all our community anti-drug organizations such as Turning Point Coalition, Circle Coalition, Rittman SALT Coalition, Norwayne SALT Coalition, Chippewa Cares, Coalition, the Wayne County Opiate Task Force, and the Drug Endangered Children Coalition in conjunction with Wayne County Children Services.

But you might ask why is MEDWAY seeking a .25 mills renewal AND a .35 mills increase for its operational levy? Because MEDWAY’s levy has remained .25 mills since MEDWAY’s inception in 1984, meaning MEDWAY has not sought a levy increase in over 35 years.

So while MEDWAY’s budget supported 13 employees in 2011, due to reduced grant funding and rising personnel costs, today MEDWAY’s budget only supports 7 employees.

The onslaught of the drug epidemic in the last few years demands more, not less, resources to combat increasingly dangerous drugs and sophisticated drug traffickers. For instance, if peddling their poison is not evil enough, drug traffickers are now increasingly disguising the deadly drugs fentanyl and carfentanil as prescription and over-the-counter pills such as Xanax, Percocet or even over-the-counter Aleve. So why vote for the MEDWAY anti-drug levy? MEDWAY saves lives.

Dan Lutz
Wayne County Prosecutor