Reporter
A bachelor of arts in journalism graduate, he started his career as a police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.
RETIRED educator Ambrose M. Bennett has asked the Commonwealth Cannabis Commission to “temporarily discontinue any action” on allowing dispensaries to deliver cannabis because it is his idea.
In a letter to the commission, Bennett said he learned that the commissioners were deliberating on allowing cannabis dispensaries to deliver their products door-to-door, which he described as his “intellectual property.”
“It seems my idea has reached the Cannabis Commission and that you are now about to try and implement this plan that was my idea,” Bennett told the commissioners.
“I don’t wish to file a lawsuit, but I am asking that the Cannabis Commission to please temporarily discontinue any action on this matter until the governor has signed the intended contract with Pro Services that he has already committed to doing,” Bennett said.
Pro Services is Bennett’s consultancy firm.
Bennett didn’t mention the amount of the contract, but told the commission that “the contract is for me to be one of his advisors to assist in reforming the cannabis tourism industry and to get the hemp industry started, as even your previous chair wanted to hire me.”
In an interview on Friday, Cannabis Commissioner Joe Palacios said the idea of door-to-door delivery was shared to him by a relative who owns a cannabis business on Colorado. Palacios said “that was way, way back” prior to Bennett bringing up the same idea.
He said a couple of years ago, his relative asked him to check out what he was trying to do in El Paso County in Colorado, referring to the door-to-door delivery of cannabis. Palacios said the commission started talking about his relative’s recommendation in July 2023. He said they liked the idea because it can take away the stigma among cannabis users.
“Because some people don’t want to be seen buying cannabis at a dispensary,” Palacios said.
He said he also mentioned cannabis delivery in his testimony at a public hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations in April 2023.
In September last year, the commission “adopted” the idea of cannabis delivery, he added.
As for Bennett’s intellectual property” claim, Palacios said: “Last time I checked, the Tin Man was not the only person that the wizard gave brains to.”
Asked for comment, Bennett said, “He’s just making up stuff,” referring to Palacios. Bennett said he had been discussing the door-to-door idea long before he wrote the commission his letter.
Bennett said he’s not going to argue about whose idea it was. He said he understands that Palacios is just trying to defend the commission. “He is just trying to save his job because Commerce’s Alcoholic Beverage and Tobacco Control, the mayors of Saipan, Tinian and Rota as well as the municipal councils can do a better job than a two-person operation,” Bennett said referring to the commission’s managing director, Mikiotti Evangelista, and his secretary.
In his letter to the commission, Bennett said, “As some of you may know, I have been trying to help the Cannabis Commission since it’s conception and that I’m not the enemy on this matter. But I must protect my intellectual property or the actual need for me will be ineffective, so the Commission is on notice and I hope that you can understand and even appreciate my request.”
Reporter
A bachelor of arts in journalism graduate, he started his career as a police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.
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Bennett says door-to-door cannabis delivery is his idea – Marianas Variety News & Views
