Pubdate: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 Source: Saipan Tribune (US MP) Copyright: 2010 Saipan Tribune Contact: http://www.saipantribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2666 Author: Ruth L. Tighe DREAMS ARE NICE BUT Whether or not one believes marijuana is harmful-or less harmful than tobacco or alcohol-is one thing. Asking people to believe that marijuana is the solution to the CNMI's collapsing economy is quite another. Part 3 of the series of articles appearing under Rep. Stanley T. Torres' name on "why we should" legalize marijuana-and one wonders who actually wrote the series-would have you believe that the answer to all the CNMI's problems would be solved if marijuana possession were made legal. "The visitors would come from all over the world to enjoy a safe haven. Word will spread like wildfire that at last there is a freedom- loving society that will allow regulated and taxed marijuana use in a controlled and safe environment. The multiplier effect will turn each tourist dollar into 3 or 4 more as it circulates in and out of the CNMI economy," says the article. "I predict that we might soon see a waiting list form for visitors to be able to arrive here. We currently have the capability to handle about 750,000 visitors per year. The limiting factor is hotel accommodations. I foresee new hotel and resort opportunities on Rota and Tinian as well as increases in the Saipan inventory of hotel rooms. Tourism will be booming again and it won't take years; it will happen quickly. Tinian and Rota will share in the boom this time," it continues. "Some worry about the few tens of millions that might be lost from the dole-outs and begging from the U.S. government. I would suggest that those federal handouts are tiny in comparison to the income that will be generated by using medical and personal use marijuana as the CNMI's new import/export industry. I believe that it would become a multi- billion dollar industry in a relatively short time," Torres writes. It almost sounds like one of those snake-oil commercials on late-night TV, and the same caution one should apply there applies here, too. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. What does he think will happen to all the graft and corruption that now mar the economy? Does he not think that that, too, will increase? How long before enough investors are found willing and able to jump through the bureaucratic hoops necessary to establishing businesses here? How long before they acquire enough land to make such a project cost-effective? Whose land? What will happen to CHC, once the federal dollars are withdrawn, until enough marijuana is grown to establish a viable supply, until the airlines start flying here again, until the predicted additional hotel space becomes available? How long will that take? In the meantime, who will provide health care for the people of the CNMI? Torres claims he does not smoke pot. But one wonders whether whoever wrote the article does. Dreams are nice. But few survive reality and this isn't one of them. Ruth L. Tighe Tanapag, Saipan - --- MAP posted-by: Matt