To all rental car businesses
This is to support the need for rental car agencies to orient foreign drivers on the laws and expectations of driving in the CNMI. I want to thank Kagman Rep. Lorenzo DL Guerrero for speaking out on this issue. But too often, just asking people to do something, especially businesses, won’t get it done completely, especially when it is systemic and dependent upon all to fulfill or respond accordingly. I would like to suggest a simple law that would require rental car agencies to show their clients a simple pictorial checklist of expectations for their clients to sign, showing they have been informed of these expectations. All tourists need to be oriented in pictorial form.
A pictorial approach will be the best method to resolve these issues. It is also very simple to implement and to explain, as opposed to a written document that would have to be in several languages and still explained to some degree.
It is also important to require rental car agencies to perform the orientation of driving in the CNMI to foreigners. If a tourist is stopped and cited for a violation and he or she doesn’t have a signed copy of the pictorial orientation, then the rental car agency will also get a citation for failure to follow CNMI rental car law. We must fix this growing problem as it will only get worse!
Regarding the paying of citations by tourists who leave and never pay, this will continue to be a growing problem as our tourists industry grows. I actually offered the solution for the collection and payment of all citations in the Cannabis Act. There will be tourists who will get citations for smoking pot in unauthorized places and we also need to make sure no tourist leaves the CNMI with marijuana. I proposed in an amnesty checkpoint—tourists and everyone leaving would be screened for marijuana and a computer check for any outstanding warrants and citations to be paid before leaving. Individuals would be allowed to throw their marijuana or products away with no repercussion before entering the federally controlled area and, if they owe payment for a citation, they will have to pay it before they can proceed to exit the CNMI. Locals will be able to call and check if they owe anything before even going to the airport so they can be prepared. The implementation of a CNMI marijuana use card will also guarantee that every tourists who doesn’t drive and gets a citation for pot can’t use a fake name to avoid paying the citation. The problem of collecting all citations and warrants can easily be resolved with the method I suggested in the Cannabis Act—only if leaders will make it the law. There was also funding from the $12 million in start-up funding in the Cannabis Bill to assist the airport with more dogs and extending the departure checkpoint.
As for the tour guide certification, I actually went to MVA and talked about the same concerns raised by Rep. DL Guerrero because there are no local tour guides! How can foreign tour guides know more about the CNMI than locals? Locals are truly being marginalized out of the more skilled and high-profile jobs in tourism. Locals have no idea of the false and misleading stories some of these foreign tour guides are telling tourists about the sites, the history, the culture and the people of the CNMI. If the Legislature doesn’t do something in the form of affirmative action to promote and protect certain jobs for locals, it’s going to be a CW and Chinese operated tourism industry.
Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan
AB – We do not need a $12 million program to handle citations or warrants for tourists or locals. We can just apply the same pre-payment method for cited tourists the same way as rental cars do for security deposits for damages or fuel. In short, the cited tourist will automatically be billed by the rental company upon returning of the rental vehicle based on the violation as communicated via the responding officer while notifying the airport personnel of the cited tourist. As for locals not paying their citations, we have this thing called, ‘bench warrant’ that will make sure they pay up one way or another. That’s it. We do not have to make it complicated.
FYI. There are many private cars that are being rented out right now that are not licensed rentals, just like there are rented rooms that are not licensed. This is the trend right now. Money is the driving force. The main problem we have is lack of accurate communication, especially to Chinese tourists who are the majority. We marketed the CNMI to this segmented group and failed to update our information at the same time. Xièxiè (thank you).
By the way, isn’t the $12 million start-up you speak of based on your proposal to monopolize the cannabis industry? Yes, we know. But, bù, xièxiè (no thank you).
I was discussing with my wife about investing or creating a cannabis enterprise in the CNMI, but she was against such venture due to the fact that MJ had been marketed throughout the CNMI for decades and the Cannabis market within our island chain is saturated. If there is money involve, people will become creative to make the extra green backs. Cannabis from Colorado had made its way to “The Big Apple” and many are making tons of money on such predicament. The CNMI is no exception, many will exploit the system to make the extra mula. Monopoly? Maybe AB is smoking extra strength strain of the Tetrahydrocannabinol and it had taken its toll.
You are correct, due to us being on an island with a “captive” customer base and no “legal” means to transport this product off the island, AND also with Guam having legalized this, this will in no way produce anyway near the amount of revenue as some predict.
This along with the costs of licensing, growing, grading and packaging along with many other regs. will ensure that all of the present “illegal” growers will flourish as it will in fact bring down prices while raising under the counter availability.
BTW if this was so profitable it would seem that so many of our elected would just jump on this oppertunity and pass such a measure a long time ago so they (family) could reap the riches.
It is bad to do business throughout the CNMI, because the crab mentality within our government starts from the governor down. And the governor is a joke when it comes to addressing our social problems within our society. The Cannabis industry will become another victim of our so call narrow minded elected officials, creating its existence and not knowing or not having a long term solutions to nurture such endeavors.
Surely, the underground growers in the CNMI will have the upper hand when it comes to the distribution of the MJ, because they had been in business for decades and they had established clienteles over the years. No amount of regulation will discouraged or impeded the black market of the Cannabis industry for the law enforcement agencies throughout the CNMI were or are the markets best customers.