Alternative for marijuana measure sought

Sen. Sixto K. Igisomar (R-Saipan) is looking at other ways of legalizing marijuana use in the CNMI after Senate Bill 19-106, which he introduced, encountered unforeseen circumstances. He has pre-filed the bill and is pushing for marijuana’s personal use and decriminalization in the CNMI.

The Republican lawmaker’s original plan was to go through the entire process at the Legislature: introduce the bill, hold public hearings, write a committee report, pass it at the House of Representatives, and if passed by the Senate without amendments, straight to the governor’s desk for signing into law.

“We thought this would be quicker but apparently there were a lot of things that came up and stalled the process. But I also just told Sen. Teresita Santos (R-Rota) to file the bill, meaning to table it,” Igisomar told Saipan Tribune.

Santos is chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. Igisomar was elected to a full four-year term early this month.

Igisomar said he had discussions with proponents of other ways of pushing for the legalization of personal use and decriminalization of marijuana in the Commonwealth—one of which is through a signature drive.

“There are two ways to really do it, one is to do a signature campaign and have the people sign the petition and present it to the attorney general to put it on the ballot. That’s an alternative and we didn’t do it the last time,” he said.

“It is either we do it again at the Legislature or we just do the signature drive. It might be better for the proponents to put it that way. The only thing that they ask is to be favorable in any legislative support.”

Igisomar thinks there won’t be enough time for his bill to go through the entire process again at the Legislature. He said that he and proponents of his marijuana bill also had several dialogues with pro-legalization organizations in the U.S. where they would like to add some amendments.

“Like reduce some of the items like penalties and some of the fees where some of them are very low. There are some provisions on the bill that were I think too lenient. I told the proponents that they must work on this bill and give me a document that is better than the last.”

The states of California and Massachusetts voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana while Florida expanded its legal access to the herb last election.

Marijuana allegedly treats glaucoma, epilepsy, chronic pain, muscle spasms, and reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, and improve the appetite of people with HIV/AIDS. The use of cannabis is legal in Washington D.C., Guam and more than 20 other U.S. states.