Clarifications

While I have vowed to keep out of the mainstream politics of the CNMI election process, the political issue of legalization is my only exception as I have been working on this issue for over two years and now I’m hearing it will be another two years by the authors of the CRM Act because legalization is not on the ballot this year. We need legalization now. It is also apparent that many voters are confused and are even being told that I am the reason the CMR Act is not on the ballot. FYI, two years ago I asked a member of this unknown group to work together but they flat out refused to include me. I guess they don’t know that this is a democracy and that all legislation is of, for, and by the people and no one can be denied input for consideration. I even warned this secret group at that time that if we don’t work together now that we would eventually bump heads in conflict and here we are! Se. Sixto also met with me and promised to make sure we worked together on his bill in time for it to be on the ballot but he did not keep his word.

I was also told that the Senate didn’t want to move on Sixto’s bill because I had gone public about my trip to Colorado, which is obviously a lie. I didn’t go public about my trip until Sixto had filed his bill and it was obvious that the bill was a dead issue and too late to make it to the ballot. The Senate has no reason to be upset at me for making something public that should have been public anyway. I was humbled and appreciative of the Senate leadership’s wisdom to know Sixto’s bill was flawed and going nowhere fast. I commend the entire Senate for their efforts to try and come up with a better bill and for working with me.

Every bill that comes out of our Legislature is supposed to be a bill of, for, and by the people but when Sixto uses a secret group of people to create legislation it should tell people with common sense that something is not right. To this very day the people don’t know who really wrote the CMR Act. I know Sixto is credited with the bill but he did not write it.

I hope this will help to clarify what happened with the CMR Act vs the Cannabis Act and that in the future the people and the entire Legislature will continue to support my work to legalize.

Ambrose M Bennett
Kagman, Saipan