[ OUR OPINION ]
Warn kids about
crystal meth’s dangersCRYSTAL methamphetamine is a larger problem in Hawaii than elsewhere in the country, but that may change. The ease and low cost of producing what is being called the poor man's cocaine is increasing its appeal across the country. Education may be the best way to combat this dangerous drug.
THE ISSUE A national survey shows men arrested for crimes in Honolulu are more likely than arrestees elsewhere to be users of crystal methamphetamine.
From January 2000 through last September 2001, 35.9 percent of all males arrested in Honolulu tested positive for crystal meth, or "ice," a percentage far above any of the other 36 cities included in a survey by the U.S. Department of Justice. All other cities registered percentages below 30 percent. The survey shows it is increasingly the drug of choice in Western states while cocaine and heroine are used more in the East.
The recent survey focused on male arrestees, but an earlier survey by the same agency, the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice, found that women law breakers may be even more attracted to the drug than men. More than 40 percent of the women arrested in Honolulu in 2000 tested positive for meth.
This is somewhat understandable, because crystal meth made its American debut in Hawaii, where it was smuggled from Taiwan and South Korea during the 1980s. Its use in the islands became widespread by the late 1980s and distribution extended to California. Its use is reported to be growing dramatically in the Midwest.
Kat Brady, Community Alliance on Prisons coordinator, suggests that marijuana eradication efforts in Hawaii caused drug users to turn to crystal meth. They found it to be relatively inexpensive, and it could be made from over-the-counter cold and asthma medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, and such ingredients as red phosphorous, hydrochloric acid, drain cleaner, battery acid, lye, lantern fuel and antifreeze.
Clandestine "mom and pop" crystal meth laboratories have sprouted up across the state, as many young people have gravitated to the drug. High school seniors surveyed several years ago indicated that 7.5 percent of them had tried methamphetamine, compared with 4.4 percent of 12th graders nationally.
Three-fourths of the Honolulu Police Department's narcotics and vice resources are focused on crystal meth, and law-enforcement efforts cannot be expected to increase. The FBI has reassigned 400 agents from drug investigations to counterterrorism, and Director Robert S. Mueller III says the bureau probably will curtail work on "stand-alone methamphetamine cases."
Parents and teachers will need to take responsibility for warning children about the addictiveness of crystal meth and the damage it causes to the brain, central nervous system and other parts of the body. Homes and schools are the natural front lines of this continuing war.
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