{"id":223400,"date":"2016-03-18T04:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T18:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=223400"},"modified":"2016-03-18T04:00:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T18:00:52","slug":"bill-funding-cnmi-drug-court-now-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bill-funding-cnmi-drug-court-now-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill funding CNMI Drug Court now law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chief<\/a>
Chief Justice Alexander Castro speaks at an event yesterday where Gov. Ralph DLG Torres signed a bill allocating funding to the CNMI Drug Court. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres signed a bill yesterday to fund the CNMI Drug Court an amount of $150,000, $125,000 of which will be allocated to drug court personnel.<\/p>\n

Introduced by Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan) and sponsored by Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan), the drug court bill passed both houses of the Legislature this month, and will allow the CNMI, once the drug court is implemented, to join Guam and the rest of U.S. mainland, all of which have drug courts, in a collaborative effort to address the devastating effects that drug crime has had on CNMI families and the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another step closer to our goal. There is going to be some trial and error but we\u2019re moving forward,\u201d Torres said at a signing event yesterday. \u201cIt is our obligation as the administration to block drugs from entering our islands.<\/p>\n

Torres also noted that x-rays for the CNMI Division of Customs will arrive next week, and pointed to new appropriations for the funding of two drug canines in the coming months to sniff out crime in the community and schools. One of Rota\u2019s schools was reportedly found to have illicit drugs on campus this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drug court will align us with other jurisdictions who have drug courts,\u201d said Superior Court Associate Judge David Wiseman. \u201cDrug court is a team effort. It\u2019s a whole community effort in getting this started.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreatment, enforcement, the Judiciary, the Legislature, and Executive [branch] are all factors,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is a community that needs it. You can see the effects [drugs has on our community]. Once the [drug court] gets going, it\u2019s not just for any addict. It\u2019s a qualifying process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m elated that this\u2019ll be a legacy for [the judiciary] to leave,\u201d said Wiseman, who will be retiring in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the problems, we know what they are,\u201d said CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan. \u201cThese are baby steps and we\u2019re moving forward in terms of funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Alexander Castro expressed his sentiments over the many crimes committed in his time as a judge. \u201cMajority of domestic violence cases and many other crimes are drug related. You can see that we have a high rate of recidivism. [The drug court] will make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castro also spoke to the beginning stages of this effort to from the judiciary to help the community. \u201cJudge Wiseman and I sat down to decide what we wanted to do. Wiseman went out and invited [retired Judge Steve Hansen] to help us. This is one of the happiest days of my life, not just as a judge but [also] as a prosecutor. This is our greatest collaboration with the government to fight illicit drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be error but don\u2019t lose faith,\u201d said Hansen, a retired judge from Utah who has volunteered his efforts on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. \u201cStay on course. You will see the results. If it\u2019s run properly…and I am very confident in your judiciary, you\u2019ll be satisfied with the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres also thanked members of the House of Representatives, Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, and Hansen for their continued support and commitment to putting the drug court plans into action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres signed a bill yesterday to fund the CNMI Drug Court an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":223403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,410,3549,1326],"class_list":["post-223400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-drugs","tag-jesus-christ","tag-judge-wiseman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223400","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}