{"id":198713,"date":"2015-04-09T04:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T18:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=198713"},"modified":"2015-04-09T04:00:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T18:00:02","slug":"igisomar-focus-on-medicinal-use-of-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/igisomar-focus-on-medicinal-use-of-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Igisomar: Focus on medicinal use of marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan) is appealing to the public to focus their comments on the medicinal\u2014and not recreational\u2014use of marijuana at the public hearing for the proposed marijuana legalization bill.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_198715\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-198715\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a attid=\"198715\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/sixto-igisomar-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/sixto-igisomar-2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Igisomar\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-198715\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-198715\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Igisomar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The hearing will be held this Friday, 6pm, at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe, and will be the first of two hearings on Saipan for the controversial bill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to appeal to the public to please keep their comments on the medicinal use of marijuana and not on its recreational use,\u201d Igisomar said.<\/p>\n<p>The senator said he wants to make it clear that Senate Bill 19-06 proposes to legalize the medical use of marijuana and not its recreational use.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmaker said he has gotten a significant number of comments from CNMI residents wanting to find an alternative to expensive medical treatments for terminal diseases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a medicinal forum for medicinal marijuana. It is not for recreational and it is not for waiver or moratorium. Please keep [comments on] recreational and moratorium out of this public hearing,\u201d the lawmaker stressed.<\/p>\n<p>He said talks on recreational or on moratorium of marijuana might just \u201cdilute\u201d the real purpose of the hearing, which is reach out to those who need marijuana for medicinal purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Igisomar also said he respectfully asks the public or individuals \u201cnot to campaign on the recreational use of the marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>S.B. 19-06 was introduced in January. Public hearings were then scheduled for Saipan, Rota, and Tinian.<\/p>\n<p>At the first public hearing on Rota, one of the comments came from long-time CNMI resident Ambrose M. Bennett, who supports the recreational use f marijuana. He has also been a prolific letter writer to both newspapers\u2019 Opinion section.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett, in a written testimony, sent a lengthy discourse on marijuana and its uses, and how it can be regulated. One topic discussed was what he called \u201cmoratorium methodology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan) is appealing to the public to focus their comments on the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":198715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,3661,1411],"class_list":["post-198713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-igisomar-focus","tag-senate-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}