[ OUR OPINION ]
Increase proven
strategies to fight ‘ice’CRYSTAL methamphetamine has not become a problem of catastrophic proportions in Hawaii for lack of concern. While some efforts have been misdirected, other attempts to combat the problem have found success. The Legislature has formed a task force to tackle the problem, and the Lingle administration will conduct a summit tomorrow through Wednesday to address the issues. A robust effort is needed to accelerate the methods that have worked and avoid those that have been shown to be ineffective.
THE ISSUE
A summit conference has been scheduled this week to develop a strategy to combat Hawaii's crystal methamphetamine problem.During the past week, Star-Bulletin reporters produced a series of articles examining the state's "ice storm." Addiction to the drug has disrupted families and careers, and resulted in countless habit-supporting property crimes. Last year alone, ice caused 62 deaths, including 20 by overdose, 17 suicides and 10 homicides.
Crystal meth arrived in Hawaii before it befell the mainland, brought to the islands from Asian drug traffickers in the 1980s. By the mid-'90s, the main source had shifted to the West Coast and Mexico. It has not been produced in Hawaii on a large scale. During the past three years, only a dozen manufacturing labs have been seized in Hawaii, compared to more than 3,400 in California and 23,000 nationally. It is easily smuggled into the state by plane or postal delivery. Chances of intercepting such contraband are slim.
Ice is not a growing problem in schools. While the number of adults treated in Hawaii for ice addiction has doubled in the past five years, the percentage of high school students who have tried it has dropped steadily from 11.7 percent in 1989 to 5.3 percent last year, according to surveys.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has proposed voluntary drug tests in schools to detect crystal meth. However, a national study has shown drug abuse to be as common in schools with drug testing as in those without it. D. William Wood, a University of Hawaii sociologist and an expert on the subject, warns that drug testing "at a time when the data show a reduction in ice use in the schools sends a mixed message."
Instead, Wood recommends increasing what seems to have been responsible for the decline: counseling. The state Health Department has substance-abuse counselors in 29 of the state's 44 public high schools and three of the 56 middle schools. More counselors should be hired.
The criminal-justice system has not dealt effectively with the problem. Judges and lawyers have observed a pronounced increase in crimes committed by ice addicts trying to support a habit that typically costs $50 to $170 a day, but no method has been developed to quantify them. Anecdotal information is not good enough.
Last year's Legislature enacted a law allowing probation with treatment to first-time nonviolent drug offenders but failed to appropriate enough money to provide that treatment. "All they did was put on the streets drug addicts who are going to commit crimes to fuel their habit," says Public Safety Director John Peyton. Obviously, treatment should not be prescribed unless it is available, and it should be made available.
Drug courts have been effective in providing treatment for nonviolent offenders, resulting in a recidivism rate of only 5 percent among those who graduated from the Oahu program in the past seven years. However, graduates numbered only 315, little more than half of those who entered the program. Those are small numbers compared to the conservative estimate of more than 8,000 Hawaii residents addicted to crystal meth.
