PUBLIC Law 23‑27, enacted by the 23rd Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature and signed by the late Gov. Arnold Palacios on Oct. 2, 2024, was clear and unambiguous: “pre‑employment drug testing for government positions in the CNMI shall not include testing for the presence of marijuana for non–safety sensitive positions, as defined in 4 CMC § 53005(u).”
As a former Cannabis Commissioner for Rota, I welcomed this law. Many of us did. We shared it with our municipal leaders and celebrated it as a long‑overdue alignment between our statutes and our values as a community that legalized cannabis and sought to regulate it responsibly.
Yet on Dec. 12, 2025, I learned firsthand that this law is not being honored. Even for a purely administrative, non–safety sensitive position — a job involving paperwork and computer work — applicants are still being required to test negative for THC. This directly contradicts the plain language and intent of Public Law 23‑27.
What makes this even more troubling is the inconsistency in how cannabis is treated compared to alcohol. Under CNMI law, marijuana is supposed to be treated like alcohol: something adults may consume on their own personal time, with the expectation that they report to work unimpaired. Yet cannabis users are still screened and penalized as if they would be consuming during working hours or as if responsible off‑time use would somehow affect their work, while alcohol drinkers face no such pre‑judgment or suspicion. This double standard shows that marijuana remains unfairly stigmatized in the CNMI, despite legalization and despite the Legislature’s clear directive.
When a law is passed, announced, and celebrated, but quietly disregarded in practice, the public is misled. Potential government employees are misled. And the integrity of our legislative process is undermined.
This is not about cannabis. This is about trust.
If a law on the books is treated as optional, then what else in our Commonwealth is merely symbolic?
Public Law 23‑27 was not meant to be decorative. It was meant to be followed.
THOMAS L. SONGSONG
Former Cannabis Commissioner
Service-connected disabled Marine veteran
