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Editorials
Friday, September 1, 2000Grant for marijuana
eradication rejectedThe issue: The Hawaii County Council has voted to return a federal grant for marijuana eradication.
THE battle against marijuana cultivation on the Big Island just got harder. The Hawaii County Council voted to return a federal grant that has been used to fund marijuana eradication in Operation Green Harvest.
That is discouraging to people who consider marijuana a menace and want the 16-year-old program to continue -- as it should. The reason for the return of the $265,000 grant is exasperating: Council members were unable to secure insurance protection against possible impeachment.
Council members voted last month to accept the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration grant. But first they added a provision to use an unspecified portion of it to buy insurance protecting them from paying for lawyers to defend themselves in any impeachment actions that might arise.
Last year opponents sought unsuccessfully to impeach Mayor Stephen Yamashiro and Council members over the eradication program, alleging that the county failed to provide an adequate annual review as specified in the charter.
County purchasing agent Bill Gray told the Council he was unable to find insurance coverage, despite the efforts of two agents on the Big Island, two more in Honolulu and his own searches among mainland insurance carriers.
Police Lt. Henry Tavares Jr. said the result of the decision to return the grant will be an increase in marijuana production and associated problems. The loss of the grant "cripples" the department's anti-marijuana campaign, he said.
Most of the grant money was earmarked for hiring helicopters to fly marijuana eradication operations. It has also been used to pay for overtime and other equipment.
Police still will have the assistance of two DEA helicopters stationed on the Big Island, and occasional support from National Guard aircraft. However, the DEA choppers can only direct ground teams to marijuana patches. They cannot be used for the more timesaving approach of lowering officers directly to the plants.
That means marijuana eradication will become more labor-intensive. Vice officers will have less time to spend on enforcing laws against so-called hard drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Despite opposition by law enforcement agencies and the Hawaii Medical Association, the use of marijuana for medical purposes was approved by the Legislature and signed into state law although such use remains banned under federal law. The state action could lead to wider use under the guise of medical needs.
The ultimate resolution of the federal-state conflict remains in doubt. However, the U.S. Supreme Court, acting on a request from the Clinton administration, has temporarily barred a California clinic from distributing marijuana to patients for medicinal purposes.
It is frustrating to have the state and federal governments taking opposing positions on medical use of marijuana. It is more frustrating to have the issue of accepting a federal grant for eradication decided on the basis of an inability to obtain insurance against legal harassment.
‘Going postal’
is bad rap
THE term "going postal" may deserve a different meaning following a study of violence at post offices: looking for work elsewhere. While the study concluded that violence is no more likely to occur at post offices than at other job sites, it also found that postal workers are unhappier in their jobs than are most other Americans. Its recommendation that steps be taken to reduce labor-management tensions has merit.
"Going postal" was an expression that was adopted several years ago after a number of shootings occurred at various post offices around the country. It was more black humor than a phenomenon that anybody took very seriously and, in that sense, was what former Secretary of Health and Welfare Joseph Califano, who directed the study, called "a bad rap."
The reputation of violence seems to have been accepted even by postal workers themselves. The study found that postal workers are almost six times more likely than those elsewhere in the work force to believe they are at risk of violence from co-workers.
In fact, the homicide rates were 2.1 per 100,000 workers in retail stores and 1.66 in public administration, compared with 0.26 per 100,000 postal employees.
In addition, a book due out this week, unrelated to the Califano study, places mail carrier at 170th -- several notches above newspaper reporter -- among 250 job categories rated according to income, stress, physical demands, potential growth, job security and work environment.
Not bad? Don't expect an I-told-you-so response from postal workers. Many seem to have believed all the bad things that have been said about their plight.
The Califano study found that postal workers are twice as likely as other workers to say they would change jobs for the same pay and benefits. The Postal Service has a level of grievance activity unmatched in the private or public sector.
Postmaster General William Henderson says he will consider overhauling the service's dispute resolution system. In the meantime, postal workers should not take too seriously the complaints by Newman of "Seinfeld" and Cliff of "Cheers" on television reruns.
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
