Previous Story
Cannabis commission expects bumps with medical regs
|
Posted on Nov 25 2019
The Commonwealth Cannabis Commission expects some bumps along the way as they start work on the medical aspect of cannabis regulations that the commission is writing right now.
Cannabis Commission chair Nadine Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune last week that, while she cannot put a specific timeline on the expected completion of the cannabis regulations, the medicinal regulations for cannabis might be the most challenging.
“Although the commercial [aspect of the regulations] are lengthy, we feel that medicinal may be the most challenging category only because of the lab perspective of it. It’s very costly to open up a [cannabis-focused] laboratory,” she said in an interview over the weekend.
She assured, though, the commission intends to work on this aspect with the Commonwealth Health Care Corp., the Division of Public Health, and even the Bureau of Environmental Health.
“…[The commission will work together to] make sure that we are not overstepping our boundaries on certain topic areas,” she said.
About opening up a cannabis-focused laboratory, Deleon Guerrero noted that there is interest, although she noted that the commission has not met with the interested individual.
“If that happens, then we are well on our way of pushing out the [regulations faster],” she said.
Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune in a previous interview that the commission was, as of last Thursday morning, about halfway through the cannabis regulations.
She noted that the homegrown regulations for cannabis are still under review at the Office of the Attorney General for legal sufficiency, while the commercial regulations were discussed at their weekly meeting last Thursday.
The Cannabis Commission has until March 20, 2020, to come up with the regulations governing the use, production, and selling of cannabis in the CNMI. March 20, 2020 marks exactly 180 days since the creation of the commission after Gov. Ralph DLG Torres swore into office Saipan representatives Deleon Guerrero and Matt Deleon Guerrero, Rota representative Thomas Songsong, Tinian representative Journie Hofschneider, and Northern Islands representative Valentino Taisacan last Sept. 12, 2019.
