Big Island boasts new
arsenal to battle 'ice'An official suggests amending
Hawaii's Constitution to make
wiretapping easier
WAIKOLOA RESORT, Hawaii >> A year after the Big Island's first methamphetamine summit, the island has more money, more manpower and more programs in place or coming soon to fight "ice," speakers told the second annual Hawaii Island Meth Summit yesterday.
"This will be the first community in the United States that will wipe out ice," predicted U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.
But since much of the beefed-up effort is still in the pipeline, details remain to be worked out.
Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna reported that his department has initiated 353 ice cases since last year, recovered 12.6 pounds of methamphetamine worth $1.15 million and made 200 arrests.
"We caught a 15-year-old who had 16 grams (about half an ounce) of ice in his backpack," Mahuna said. The drug is valued at $200 per gram, Mahuna said, making the contents of the boy's backpack worth $3,200.
Billy Kenoi, Mayor Harry Kim's drug coordinator, noted the creation of a six-member task force within the Police Department devoted solely to ice cases.
The department has also received $500,000 for a crime lab, so drug samples will no longer have to be sent to Honolulu for testing, causing up to six months of delay per case.
U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said the federal Drug Enforcement Administration plans to increase staff on the island to four agents from one, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco plans to open an office.
Inouye announced $4 million he obtained through the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kenoi said $1 million of that will go for law enforcement, $1 million for treatment and $2 million for prevention and education.
A $2.2 million facility to treat 48 teenagers a year based on Hawaiian cultural practices is being planned, Kenoi said.
Its major benefit will be treatment on the Big Island instead of sending teenagers off island where they lose the support of their family, he said.
Rather than spend $30,000 on one staff person in a prevention program, the county decided to distribute that money in $1,000 allotments to private agencies for recreation programs, he said. Money will also be spent on improving the county bus system to get kids to the programs, he said.
Kubo listed recommendations including amending the state Constitution to permit easier wiretapping and to resume "walk and talk" police programs at airports, banned by a 1992 state Supreme Court decision.
Kubo also called for education and treatment. "This is no time to be stingy," he said.
The ice summits are an outgrowth of a 2001 meeting between Inouye and Kim. "I think your mayor can take a lot of credit for it," Inouye said. "You are the leaders. You are the ones that started this crusade, and others are following."
Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona Jr. will hold a statewide ice conference in Honolulu Sept. 15-17.
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New ‘ice’ task force hopes
to cut frustration of delay
WAIKOLOA RESORT, Hawaii >> Big Island residents with an "ice" distribution house in their neighborhood often complain about the seemingly slow response of police in getting rid of it.
Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna knows exactly what it feels like. An ice house was located two doors from his Waimea home, and the department needed five months to get rid of it, he said yesterday during the Big Island ice summit.
During those five months, Mahuna's lawn mower was stolen, the tires were removed from his truck and thieves even stole a toilet from a bathroom in his garage.
The incidents finally ended about eight months ago with the arrest of the suspects, he said. "It seemed like an eternity," he said.
The creation of a new ice task force in the department should help, Mahuna said. The task force will have three officers in East Hawaii and three in West Hawaii, all assigned exclusively to crystal methamphetamine cases.
That should speed up enforcement. Instead of five months, the department is hoping to be able to close ice houses in a month to six weeks, Mahuna said.
The task still will not be easy. To get evidence that will hold up in court, police need to send an undercover agent into a suspected drug house on more than one occasion to make at least a couple of drug buys, he said.
