War on pakalolo
may lead to more AIDS

When the price of beef rises, smart shoppers choose chicken or fish. Economists call this phenomenon "commodity substitution." Drugs are also commodities.

In late 1993, the state Department of Health detailed a sudden doubling in new HIV infections. This was the same year that Hawaii County police officers reported to the County Council a tripling of marijuana prices. "I don't think you can find it (marijuana) anymore," one officer testified.

Where, then, did users of illegal substances turn? Did eradication drive up the price of marijuana so much that drug users chose more affordable commodities, i.e. addictive, injectable drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine?

Did some of these newly addicted users then acquire the HIV virus from needle sharing? Have we set off another round of this tragic epidemic of eradication, drug substitution, needle sharing and AIDS? (It is bleakly ironic that AIDS patients turn to cannibis for relief from their symptoms.)

Statistics alone can never prove cause and effect. But the dovetailing of these disturbing numbers should give any thoughtful proponent of eradication pause. In the long run, it may be smarter to let 'em smoke.

Glenn Robinette
Hilo, Hawaii

Lawmakers are intent
on hurting chiropractors

In a few short weeks, legislators will in all likelihood change the laws to remove chiropractic health care from auto insurance and workers' compensation systems. Chiropractors have been told the reason is that a few of them keep abusing the system by overtreating and overbilling.

While this may be true, there are means within current laws to get the abusers out of the system. Some legislators, however, have decided (to put it in their words) that "it is time to punish the chiropractors."

Who is being punished if the public is denied access to chiropractic - the doctor or the patient who needs the care? Of course, the members of the public do have a choice: They can take prescribed drugs or suffer.

Maybe it is time to let legislators know how you feel. If only a few doctors of chiropractic abuse the system, punish the few and not the people who use the ones who don't.

Richard L. Wilcox
Makawao, Maui

Just 'truly' handicapped
should get special parking

I HAVE HAD IT! This whole flap about handicap parking is useless. The true problem is that the whole concept about who is eligible for a handicap permit has to be changed.

The ONLY persons who should be eligible for a pass are those who, in fact, actually REQUIRE a device - such as a wheelchair, walker, a set of crutches, an oxygen tank, etc. - to get around.

Anyone who doesn't use a device but is able to walk around shopping malls, push shopping carts in food stores, etc., should not have a permit. It is akin to fraud.

The law defining "disability" in respect to a parking permit should be changed, and the qualifying decisions should be made by state/county departments of health personnel.

Victor Librizzi
Mililani

Police deserve shielding
from prying public's eyes

I agree with Deborah Morikawa's Feb. 15 View Point column, "Police officers deserve privacy." Our legitimate complaints about disciplined officers should be addressed to the "employer" (HPD) and not the "employee."

The whole idea of printing the names of disciplined officers brings up images of the days of Puritan New England, when being shackled in the town square was punishment for a wide variety of offenses.

I am not sure that this method would affect the kinds of changes that it was intended to. If anything, I am afraid that it might discourage HPD's initiation of discipline for some offenses, because of the implication that they may become public spectacle.

By turning the personal records of Honolulu police officers into a public forum, we are opening them up to the general cross-section of the public, from law-abiding citizens to crack dealers, from the informed to uninformed.

Unfortunately, the "customer" is NOT always right, and the term "public servant" is not quite accurate.

Mati Jan
Aiea
(Via the Internet)

Japanese would still visit
despite no-smoking laws

I can't believe that the Star-Bulletin, once the champion of the common folk, would editorialize against a ban on smoking in the workplace (restaurants), a law that would be a health benefit for all concerned - including employees ("Restaurant smoking," Jan. 31).

The Star-Bulletin newsroom is smoke-free, thanks to those of us who fought for clean air in that workplace. The mayor works in a smoke-free office; City Council members work in smoke-free surroundings.

Yet they would force us to inhale dangerous second-hand smoke in our workplaces. Why should we not enjoy those health benefits?

You suggest that visitors will not "eat out" if they cannot smoke. Where do you think they will eat?

Years ago, we disproved that theory when we banned smoking on all inter-island flights. We led the nation in that one.

The Japanese still come, and they still travel inter-island without smoking. To suggest that they would quit eating out because they cannot smoke in a restaurant is the ridiculous rhetoric of tobacco lobbyists.

Keith Haugen
(Via the Internet)

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