One of the drawbacks in opening a cannabis business on Saipan is the requirement to have liability insurance, which no insurance company in the CNMI offers, according to Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan). <\/p>\n
Speaking during Friday\u2019s House of Representatives session, Propst also raised concern about CNMI\u2019s 60% tax for bringing in hemp cigarettes.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker asked the House Committee on Cannabis to look into the two issues that separate constituents have raised with him.<\/p>\n
He said a constituent is trying to open up his cannabis business, and that one the hardships he is finding is that tone is required to have liability insurance for this business. That constituent checked all the insurance companies on the island, but there is no insurance company that will do this for cannabis, Propst said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that I hope we and the members can address,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
As for the heavy tax on bringing in hemp cigarettes, Propst said it\u2019s being taxed just like cigarettes or tobacco, which is 60%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rather high for small businesses that are bringing this in. Hemp is not cannabis, it\u2019s not addictive. It really is a very mild substance. And it\u2019s used to treat anxiety, among other things,\u201d Propst said.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker said that taxing hemp at the high 60% rate is not conducive in this tough economy. \u201cAnd we want to see small businesses grow. Importing this and selling it is really not a bad thing. It\u2019s just like, it\u2019s agricultural and natural. It\u2019s hemp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Propst urged the House Committee on Commerce and Tourism, and Cannabis chair Rep. Denita Kaipat Yangetmai (D-Saipan) to address these issues. \u201cI also welcome any comments on that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the drawbacks in opening a cannabis business on Saipan is the requirement to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":332033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338970","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}