The Commonwealth Senate\u2019s proposed budget has allocated $150,000 for the creation of a drug court. A drug court will allow some first time, non-violent drug offenders to avoid the criminal consequences of a drug conviction on the condition that they successfully complete a multi-pronged rehabilitation program to cure their drug addiction. With this needed funding, the Commonwealth will be able to take an important step forward in tackling substance abuse on the islands.<\/p>\n
While additional personnel and funding will be needed to create a fully operational program, the Senate\u2019s proposed budget is an excellent step in the right direction toward eliminating the scourge of drugs in the Commonwealth. It is the Judiciary\u2019s hope that the House of Representatives agrees with the Senate to allocate adequate funds for the drug court.<\/p>\n
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman, with the support and assistance of Chief Justice Alexandro C. Castro and Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja, is leading the Judiciary\u2019s effort to create a drug court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe implementation of a drug court will allow the CNMI to join Guam and all 50 states in a collaborative effort to address the devastating effects of crime on our families and communities. Drug court is the only nationally-proven method to stop the revolving door of short-term crime sentences for drug-related crimes,\u201d said Wiseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese defendants desperately need specialized counseling and treatment\u2014and only a drug court can provide them with the help they need,\u201d he added. (NMI Judiciary)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Commonwealth Senate\u2019s proposed budget has allocated $150,000 for the creation of a drug court….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,26,51,65],"class_list":["post-209334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-cnmi","tag-guam","tag-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209334","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}