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Editorials
Thursday, May 4, 2000Marijuana measure
may lead to more useTHE Legislature has passed, and Governor Cayetano is expected to sign, a bill legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.The issue: The Legislature has approved use of marijuana for medical purposes.
The measure was approved despite opposition by law enforcement agencies and the Hawaii Medical Association. Police officers said it would be difficult to deal with abuses of the medical-use exception. The HMA pointed out that marijuana has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and that its use for medical purposes remains illegal under federal law.
The bill does not eliminate the ban on cultivation, sale and use of marijuana for nonmedical purposes, but its passage could be the foot in the door for legislation removing all such restrictions.
A sign that support for such legislation may be gaining momentum comes from the Big Island, where most of the marijuana produced in the state is believed to be grown. The Hawaii County Council voted 6-3 Tuesday to defer acceptance of $265,000 in federal funds to help conduct police marijuana raids.
Council Chairman Jimmy Arakaki and Vice Chairman Al Smith, who had previously voted to approve other marijuana eradication grants, voted to defer action, citing concern about county liability. Arakaki and Smith said the state should assume responsibility for the raids because they are carried out by police from across Hawaii with the help of the Hawaii National Guard and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
In previous votes on the issue, the council had usually been divided. The votes of Arakaki and Smith tipped the balance.
Assistant Police Chief Wendell Paiva said failure to accept the money will affect eradication efforts because police rely on the funding to hire helicopters, purchase equipment and pay for overtime. But he said the Green Harvest raids, which have been conducted in various forms since 1976, will continue.
In what may have been an indication of public sentiment on the marijuana issue, all of the private citizens who addressed the council opposed accepting the federal funds. Councilman Aaron Chung said he received 13 letters on the issue, and only one was in support of acceptance.
Clearly militant opinion on marijuana, at least on the Big Island, is on the side of approval. Whatever the silent majority may think is another matter, but the vocal people get the politicians' attention.
Although the debate over its effects continues, marijuana is not a harmless drug, particularly when smoked. If efforts to destroy marijuana plants dwindle, production -- and usage -- can be expected to increase significantly, and with the increase will come an increase in related health problems.
Is that what the people of Hawaii want?
We doubt it.
A safer ship of state
FEDERAL bureaucrats have gone overboard in stamping information classified, but that doesn't mean the government has no secrets worth protecting. The State Department has stumbled more than once in keeping its secrets.
Last year it was discovered that a conference room on the seventh floor of the department's headquarters building had been bugged. As a result, a Russian diplomat was expelled from the country.
In February, a department laptop computer containing highly sensitive information disappeared and has never been recovered. Officials said the missing laptop contained large quantities of documents about arms proliferation issues and information about sources and methods of intelligence collection.
The lapses have infuriated Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Yesterday she summoned employees to the department's largest auditorium to demand more attention to security. The proceedings also were made available through closed circuit video to offices throughout the building and to foreign posts.
"I don't care how skilled you are as a diplomat, how brilliant you may be at meetings, or how creative you are as an administrator -- if you are not a professional about security, you are a failure," she said.
Albright has asked all principal supervisory personnel to stress the importance of security to their staffs. In addition, annual refresher security briefings will be intensified, with mandatory attendance for all appropriate employees.
Following the disclosure of the missing laptop, House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., announced plans for hearings on the subject.
Gilman said the "casual attitude of the State Department toward security must change."
The end of the Cold War apparently encouraged an attitude of complacency in some quarters of the federal government that may have resulted in the recent security lapses. But there are still plenty of governments that do not wish the United States well. There is still a need for secrets -- and for protecting those secrets.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
