Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson assured that her department is ready to work with other agencies to help enforce regulations that would be in place once the cannabis bill becomes law.<\/p>\n
House Bill 20-178, which aims to legalize and regulate cannabis use in the CNMI, passed the House last week and is awaiting action at the Senate. The bill is expected to unanimously pass and could be on Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 desk before the year ends.<\/p>\n
H.B. 20-178 was re-introduced by Rep. Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan) after amending the previous bill penned by Sen. Sixto K. Igisomar (R-Saipan) since the latter\u2019s bill had revenue-generating sections.<\/p>\n
The bill had to be re-introduced since all revenue-generating bills must come from the House, including the government\u2019s budget, and other monetary appropriations and earmarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to enforcement, especially for these new industries, we always work together to find out how can we use our existing regulations to enforce these bills,\u201d Larson told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
She added that the department would recommend regulations that they see fit to be implemented. \u201cSomething that we will consider to be implemented before we move forward with this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that is been really nice for the last couple of years is there\u2019s been a lot of collaboration with different agencies. We\u2019ve really had a good working relationship because we are committed in enforcing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larson said that ensuring that taxes are collected is the result of the cooperation of all agencies involved, like the Division of Customs and the Department of Public Safety, among others.<\/p>\n
She said the Legislature always solicits the comments of Finance for revenue-generating bills. \u201cWhenever anything involves revenue generation bills, our office is asked for comments. And because of the changes, we\u2019re trying to review the latest version of the bill so that we can make some comments on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything that brings revenue into the Commonwealth is something that we need to take seriously and take a look at. So, we will be reviewing and making our comments on that,\u201d added Larson.<\/p>\n
Thorough review<\/strong><\/p>\n Torres said that he would review the bill thoroughly once it arrives on his desk before he signs it. \u201cWhen it comes to [my desk] we will be reviewing what has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will be looking into the recommendations as what the community agreed on. I will look at the report and the testimonies. I\u2019m actually going to review all the testimonies thoroughly. This is something that I\u2019m not going to rush into,\u201d added Torres.<\/p>\n He said he has also sought the input of various sectors in the community since several states in the U.S. mainland have already legalized marijuana use, either for medicinal or recreational purposes.<\/p>\n \u201cI do know, if I\u2019m not mistaken, that there are 29 states that have some sort of legalizing marijuana or cannabis, whether for medicinal or recreational [use]. That is something that I am looking into as well,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n Colorado, Washington State, Alaska, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. had already passed laws that tax, legalize, and regulate marijuana use, either for medicinal or recreational purposes. Vermont recently legalized home cultivation and possession but is now thinking of also taxing and regulating it.<\/p>\n Torres said he respects the process of how the bill went through before reaching the Senate, where it awaits action. \u201cI\u2019ve asked several departments. Went out to the community and asked different people and organizations. I\u2019m happy that they [Legislature] did a lot of public hearings on it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[That\u2019s] something that the Legislature looked at and thoroughly and asked the community for input. I\u2019m sure that they\u2019ve also done their own research. And an amendment was made, so now it is going back to the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to say that I respect the process that they made. This is something that was given to the community and was supported widely. This is something that I should consider as well, because that\u2019s the reason why we have public hearings, to give the community a chance to air their concerns or support the bill,\u201d Torres added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson assured that her department is ready to work with other agencies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[194,215,38,2443],"class_list":["post-282399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-house-bill","tag-public-safety","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282399","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}