The chairman of the Senate Committee on Gaming and Cannabis is pinning his hopes on cannabis and hemp in sparking some much-needed economic activity in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Which is why Sen. Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan) looks forward to the Commonwealth Cannabis Commission finally releasing the regulations that would govern the production and use of marijuana and hemp in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pushing forward with the [Commonwealth] Cannabis Commission completing the regulations,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cAlso\u2026hopefully we can get some economic activity with the hemp industry.\u201d <\/p>\n
The use of marijuana has been made legal in the CNMI, with the Cannabis Commission currently completing the regulations for homegrown, commercial, and medicinal marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as cannabis, we\u2019re hoping that we can spark some economic activity. Hopefully, we get a rise in tourism with that, so we\u2019ll see. It\u2019s a new industry so we\u2019re just going along, crossing our fingers and\u2026doing the work that has to be done to ensure that we make it on the right path,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
As for hemp, House Bill 21-55, or the \u201cCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Hemp Farming Industry Act of 2019,\u201d which is authored by Rep. Marco T. Peter (R-Saipan), is currently sitting in the Senate, awaiting a decision. The bill unanimously passed the House of Representatives in October last year. <\/p>\n
H.B. 21-55 seeks to reflect the changes in the 2018 Farm Bill, which federally legalized hemp, and which made hemp cultivation legal for licensed growers. Peter\u2019s bill seeks to create regulations for the hemp industry in the CNMI that is in line with federal requirements. <\/p>\n
Hemp is a strain of cannabis that has relatively lower concentrations of tetrahydocannabinol, or THC\u2014the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust recently, [hemp] was deemed legal at the federal level so we\u2019re hoping that that would be a big economic boost for us, both import and export. That industry is going to be exciting. Hopefully, it could complement our tourism industry and complement all the other industries that are here,\u201d Sablan added. <\/p>\n
He hopes that, once the regulations are done, there will be entrepreneurs that would go into the hemp industry, mostly into extraction of the oils and the medical aspect of hemp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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