The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), will now have a drug court within its Commonwealth Superior Court.
The new facility will assist law enforcement agencies to combat the impact of methamphetamine or “ice”, and other illicit drugs, in CNMI.
The bill to establish the drug court was officially signed into law by CNMI Acting Governor, Ralph Torres. The bill was first introduced in April.
The new law enables the creation of a system that will support drug rehabilitation of offenders through court monitoring, regular drug tests and dependency treatment.
Northern Marianas has now joined Guam and 50 other US states that have drug courts.
CNMI comprises a chain of 14 tropical islands in the Western Pacific. The CNMI and Guam together comprise the Marianas archipelago. It is one of two territories with US “commonwealth” status; the other is Puerto Rico. The islands total 179.01 square miles (463.63 km2).
