Rep. Donald Barcinas, the NMI Republican Party\u2019s candidate for Precinct 3, has endorsed the gubernatorial tandem of his party\u2019s opponent, saying he did so because he was disappointed with the enactment of the Cannabis Act. <\/p>\n
In a press briefing yesterday where he announced his shift in alliances, Barcinas said he chose to support the independent candidacies of Juan Nekai Babauta and Rita Sablan because he believes the two candidates supports his principles in regards to the Cannabis Act, which was enacted last Sept. 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot continue to support a party that has a different belief, especially when it comes to the marijuana legalization. \u2026That was one of the determining factors why I decided. \u2026I felt dishonored when the governor signed the marijuana legalization bill,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have put it out for the people to vote if they want to legalize marijuana and not through the legislative process,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Barcinas does not share the same belief that the Cannabis Act would benefit the community. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am against marijuana and its legalization. It\u2019s not good for the community and I don\u2019t believe it will be a revenue generating industry,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Barcinas said the CNMI itself was also disrespected when Gov. Ralph DLG Torres decided to legalize cannabis. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur flag went viral on the internet\u2026the ocean was removed as the background and they put marijuana to replace the ocean and, for me, that was a big dishonor\u2026we wouldn\u2019t have had that if the marijuana bill wasn\u2019t signed into law. The flag is a representation of our people, our attachment to the ocean, the ocean is our livelihood\u2026 and when you cover it with marijuana, that\u2019s disrespect,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Barcinas believes marijuana poses a threat to his constituents and to the children of the CNMI. <\/p>\n
\u201cI stand on my principles of what is right. A lot of my constituents are telling me not to support marijuana legalization and that\u2019s why I\u2019m listening to the people that put me in office\u2026\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was already an incident at Kagman High School where students baked brownies laced with marijuana and they brought it to school\u2026Some other schools could do the same thing with cookies, brownies, or cakes\u2026lace it with marijuana and bring it to school and innocent students will get stoned,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
He is sure he made the right decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel relieved, liberated\u2026I think I made the right decision,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Babauta said he welcomes Barcinas\u2019 move to endorse his candidacy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome his coming to support the Babauta-Sablan team and we welcome him with open arms,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Donald Barcinas, the NMI Republican Party\u2019s candidate for Precinct 3, has endorsed the gubernatorial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[13447,26,223,67],"class_list":["post-286466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cannabis-act","tag-cnmi","tag-party","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286466","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}