PUNTA GORDA — Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell told voters he’s against legalizing recreational marijuana during a recent forum between him and sheriff candidate Ryan Barber.
Both were asked if they support making recreational marijuana legal in Florida.
Prummell, 55, told the crowd at St. Mary’s Baptist Church in Punta Gorda that some Florida residents think legalizing marijuana will solve issues, but it won’t.
“It actually causes more problems,” he said. “Just look at the states that did legalize it. Right now they’re trying to figure out ways how to draw it back. A lot of people have legalization and decriminalization combined as one, but they’re two different things.”
Prummell claimed marijuana is a gateway drug, saying about 1-in-7 youth who start using marijuana move on to something else. And 1-in-10 adults move on to something stronger, he said.
“So if you don’t know what you’re voting for and we are voting on six constitutional amendments come November,” he said. “If you don’t know what they are, you probably should vote no.”
Prummell said today’s pot isn’t the marijuana that was back in the 1970s.
“Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, marijuana contained about 1% of THC,” he said. “On average it’s (now) 33% to 34% more.”
Legalizing “is not the answer,” he said.
“If you want to decriminalize it, we can have that discussion, but I would not vote it into our Constitution because then you’re telling people that they have a constitutional right to smoke dope and I think that’s ridiculous,” Prummell said.
Barber, a former manager of a Walmart, said he wanted to study more about legalizing recreational marijuana. He later said he supported it.
Barber questioned why millions are being spent for a new Charlotte County Sheriff’s headquarters. He said deputies’ starting pay needs to be at least what North Port Police officers make. He said the Sheriff’s Office is “top heavy,” including 14 finance department employees.
“I see a lot of different things that could be cut,” he said.
That doesn’t mean he wants to eliminate people from employment, he said.
“I’ve been in charge of many budgets throughout my career from $100 million to $200 million budgets with over 500 employees, human resources investigations, asset protections, securities, expenses, control expenses,” Barber said. “There’s always a way to look at it.”
Prummell said the budget is being cut, again, this year.
He said Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office only owns one building — and it was built in the 1970s. It was destroyed by Hurricane Ian and is being rebuilt.
The other facilities are all rented or leased and not hurricane certified, he said.
“That means when a hurricane came through, I had to evacuate all of my people and find a safe place for them to be,” he said.
He called that “ridiculous.”
He said its facility along Airport Road is an administration building that the Sheriff’s Office is outgrowing.
“Charlotte County is growing and the last 12 years we’d have more than 40,000 residents move into this community,” he said.
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