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Law enforcement drug testing bill heads to Inos
The Senate passed Friday a House bill requiring all law enforcement personnel to undergo drug testing each year.
This comes at a time when the CNMI is grappling with incidents of police officers, firefighters, corrections officers, customs officers and related personnel being convicted or charged with drug-related cases. The bill now goes to Gov. Eloy S. Inos for action.
Senators voted 9-0 to pass Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero’s (Cov-Saipan) House Bill 18-101, or the Law Enforcement Mandatory Drug Testing Act of 2013.
This also comes on the heels of the Department of Public Safety’s call for the Legislature to fund drug testing programs.
Leon Guerrero, a former DPS police officer, said several convicted law enforcement officers were directly assigned to the CNMI Interagency Financial Crimes and Drug Enforcement Task Force or the CNMI Narcotics Activity Resolution Coalition, “the very task forces entrusted to focus on the enforcement of financial crimes and the enforcement of anti-drug trafficking laws” of the CNMI.
He said many of these law enforcement officers are authorized to carry firearms, “which makes it even more increasingly dangerous for an armed law enforcement officer to be under the influence of a controlled substance or be engaged in drug trafficking related activities.”
DPS, the largest law enforcement agency in the CNMI, has publicly supported a “zero tolerance” mandatory drug testing policy for all police officers and firefighters with the consequence of dismissal from employment upon discovery of a positive drug test result.
The mandatory drug testing bill is among the eight bills that the Senate passed on Friday, five of which now head for the governor for action and the rest, to the House.
