Ambrose M. Bennett
THIS is a special response to the Cannabis Commission & the deflecting & gaslighting LIES.
The Truth is, our Cannabis Commission or CC is a DUD (useless), yet they are still in operation when it needs to be resolved like I wrote in the original draft. In his own words Mr. Thomas Songsong admitted to submitting a “cost-benefit analysis & restructuring proposal,” which by its very conception PROVES the Cannabis Commission has been costing more than it is bringing in revenues — operating at a LOSS ever-since its conception! Claiming to be modeled after national best practices is also “deflecting,” as I even told the Senate on the record “the CNMI is not like Colorado and other states with MILLIONS of people to support their Cannabis industry and that the CNMI must depend upon Tourism Sales to really make money.” After nearly six years, the CC has FAILED in their fiduciary duties, as there are “no tickets nor marijuana offenses on the books” to govern the activities & behavior of consumers. In fact, every time a person harvests & delivers their harvest to the dispensary they are violators, as there is no governance nor enforcement. Heck, there are tests for “thc” (the chemical that makes a person high) that cost less than five dollars for three tests, yet the CC has not mandated Dispensaries placing the amount of thc on their products to protect people so they know WHAT they are purchasing unlike on the mainland where you get a list of everything in the marijuana you are using! It also seems the CC wants to just “dump promotions on the dispensaries & enforcement on DPS” and they’ve FAILED in their duty to set the conditions for the Dispensaries to conduct events & grow!
The CC hasn’t done anything to change the law that prevents the use of marijuana in any public location when that is the ONLY way the CNMI is going to promote the industry. Heck, saying anyone can sponsor events is a LIE, as Dispensaries can’t even conduct events on “Private Property,” as they TRIED an were denied. It is the fiduciary duty of the CC to set the conditions for these events to take place which they “Failed-to-Do. As for the use of marijuana in public places, it should be noted by ALL, that “the people who use marijuana are more respectful about its usage than those who use cigarettes and drink alcohol” because it was once illegal. One of the first things I noticed at parties when I arrived here in 1989, was “men going to the back to smoke marijuana” that has ALWAYS been an overwhelming acceptable practice so why can’t people smoke on the beach as long as they are 50 to 100 feet away from children — no commonsense applied. WE, the CNMI, can’t afford to operate like Colorado and other states with millions of people and our Legalization was supposed to have been about commonsense. But it seems there was No Sense in the law that prevents the Cannabis Industry from flourishing, as it’s a major desire of tourists to smoke on the beach & especially watch the sunset. And saying the AG finds the CC has no statutory role, is because you guys FAILED to create any Statutory Laws — duh, do you think WE are stupid Mr. Songsong!
Heck, the CC doesn’t even know HOW to promote the industry to tourists nor incorporate stakeholders like the Hotels, as most hotels in Colorado offer smoking rooms and they refuse to let me show them HOW, as they are just hiding behind the excuse that marijuana is illegal in our tourists’ nations! But they ignore the fact that these same tourists travel to the mainland where there are many states where marijuana is legal and not facing any repercussions upon their return. The CC is merely “MANAGING” the industry which can easily be done by Commerce who already handles all of our “corporations” and issues licenses & creates policies which can easily be done for the Cannabis Industry, just the need for one or two additional staff to handle the workload. Mr, Songsong had the nerve to imply its “undermining the CC’s specialized oversight, institutional knowledge and community engagement to transfer the CC’s operations to Commerce, which is a “Deflecting Gaslighting LIE”! Where were these guys when I did the research for the Senate and was writing the first draft and in the news for the public to support legalization, as they have never engaged the community. It was ONLY Ambrodamus who did ALL-of-the-Heavy-Lifting to create the industry, so where is the real RESPECT & APPRECIATION!
Well, they created a Cannabis Industry after throwing a lot of what I wrote away, only to realize they have created a “DUD” that is not delivering anything and costing more than it makes, which is why Mr. Songsong is deflecting avoiding the bottom line of “making money FOR the People.” All the CC did was created policies for licenses & fees and all WE have is stores selling weed at a LOSS just as I predicted. Yes, there are a few tourists purchasing marijuana, but WE have yet to create a genuine “Cannabis Tourism Industry” as I envisioned when writing the first draft of the Bill for Sixto. FYI Mr. Songsong, Ambrodamus is an “Activist” ordained by the Bishop to “Help his People” so think on this before writing another essay to try and cover your behids, which was obvious in the deflecting & gaslighting show, as the bottom line is “the CC has FAILED to Deliver Revenues FOR the People & the CNMI,” which you can’t deny Mr. Songsong. Changing the structure of the CC is like “asking the Same-O people to do something different & better when they are at fault in the first place” is called being STUPID! Why continue to pay a “DUD CC” when transferring the CC’s & Legislatures’ duties to Commerce, the Municipal Councils on each island, Alcohol & Tobacco to include Marijuana Enforcement with promotions being approved & supported by the mayors is the RIGHT & Costless Direction for the Effectiveness needed for the CNMI to really prosper from what should be the “Cannabis Tourism Industry.”
One People, One Direction.
Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education Member, a James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays-Lifetime Humanities & Religious Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
