Statement on full legalization of marijuana

Editor’s Note: The following is the text of the author’s testimony during the two-day public hearings on Rota on Senate Bill 19-06, a bill that proposes to legalize the medical use of marijuana in the CNMI. Due to its length, it will be published as a series.

First part of a series

I am here by the special request of the people of Rota who realize that legalization can make the quality of life on Rota and in the CNMI a lot better. Given the culture of our society many people don’t like to talk publicly on this issue so they have asked me to speak on their behalf. I also want to thank Mayor Atalig for realizing the significant value of legalization for Rota and for caring about the people to get me here to educate the people of Rota and to speak on this issue. There are several empirical reasons as to why the CNMI should legalize marijuana for all uses, which I will explain over the next two days given the limited amount of time afforded me for each hearing.

Given the sweeping reforms to legalize marijuana in 24 states with five states and the District of Columbia now allowing the full legal use of marijuana for all purposes, there is no question as to whether the CNMI should legalize it but a question of how it should be legalized. There is also the overshadowing fact that the U.S. Senate is now poised to pass a bill that will legalize the medical use of marijuana for the entire country. Needless to say, the CNMI’s discussion and consideration for medical use is a bit late and not even necessary as the President and many members of Congress are poised to pass the Senate’s bill that will allow medical use in all states and territories.

So if not medical use, then what, as medical use is designed to only address the concerns of a minority special interest when recreational and medicinal use is applicable to every adult in society. In fact, we should have the freedom to choose between alcohol or marijuana and the right to use every herb bearing plant given to us by our creator as it was duly written and noted in the Bible you were holding when you took an oath to all the people of the CNMI. So please don’t let this issue become a political football to be tossed around until it is too late for the CNMI to gain an economic advantage in the marijuana industry. Please consider changing the present bill and giving the issue of full legalization to the scientists as this is purely a social and economic issue, not political.

The Germans applied science and education to the N. Islands and the islands flourished with the copra industry. The Japanese applied science and technology and the islands flourished even more with the sugar cane industry. But we have stopped applying science and have reduced ourselves to making decisions like the casino based on speculation and not science. We now have a chance to start a new and guaranteed billion-dollar marijuana industry which demands we take it seriously and even experiment with for its economic potential. We can’t afford to continue to be dead last to change, letting opportunity and the potential for real prosperity pass us by!

But even with federal law pending to legalize-it for medical use, there is an underlying and eventual goal to legalize-it for all uses. The CNMI needs to take some giant leaps for progress not baby steps as we must catch up with the rest of America, which we can do by addressing the entire issue of full legalization. Marijuana is a billion-dollar industry that is growing rapidly and the CNMI can either cash in on this industry or just let opportunity pass us by. The CNMI owes it to ourselves and I hope you will agree once you have heard all the comments to change the present bill to cover all uses of marijuana as we must at least try legalization for all uses.

In my attempt to answer the question of how or what is the best way to implement the legalization of marijuana, I applied a scientific approach for what I believe is the best methodology. The alternative solution that I wish to offer is researched-based and theoretically accurate. As a recognized, scholar, researcher, economist, and educator, the scientific approach that I am recommending to the CNMI is to legalize marijuana by way of experimentation through a “moratorium methodology.”

A moratorium is a legally authorized period of delay in the performance of a legal obligation such as a law or the payment of a debt (a waiting period). The moratorium period I am proposing will last until the next general election, at which time the people will be informed enough to make an educated vote on a permanent law based on their assessment of marijuana use during the moratorium period. All CNMI marijuana laws will be temporarily suspended and replaced with temporary laws during the moratorium period.

Until federal law is changed, the marijuana industry will continue to be subject to all kinds of criminal behavior that can’t be fully controlled as a private industry. Based on my research of existing marijuana laws and the effects of marijuana in states that have already legalized it, the safest and best methodology at this point in time is for the marijuana industry to be a government operation in partnership with private investors and businesses. The biggest challenges to legalization have been the application of controls over thousands of private businesses and individuals. However, controls will be much easier and more successful under a government operation. It would also be poetic justice for the government to make the most from something the government spent years and millions fighting.

The federal government has taken a hands-off approach to state laws on marijuana. The only instances of federal intervention were when the state’s own marijuana laws were being violated. 1. Case of the couple with 79 plants selling without a license. 2. Case of dispensaries buying from unlicensed growers.

As a former educator, I can assure you senators that the unfounded fears about our youth going crazy to smoke if it is legalized are just that—unfounded speculation and there is no proof of this in any of the states that legalized it for all uses. In fact, had children gone crazy smoking, it would have been national news and we would all know but the fact that I research and looked for events but found none is proof that the children did not go crazy in the states that legalized it for all uses.

To be continued.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Ambrose Bennett is a former teacher and an advocate for the full legalization of marijuana in the Commonwealth.