Budget cuts
slash funds for
Lanai’s drug clinicService is in jeopardy
despite a partnership
with Alu Like Inc.
As lawmakers, health-care workers and educators gather today for the state's three-day summit to tackle the crystal methamphetamine epidemic, a 75 percent cut in funding may force the only drug abuse prevention program on Lanai to reduce its services.
Maui County granted the nonprofit Coalition for a Drug Free Lanai $9,750 for this fiscal year, down from $39,000 last year, said Joelle Aoki, the former executive director of the agency, who was forced to find a job elsewhere because of the cuts.
Dwayne Betsill, vice chairman of the Maui County Grants Review Committee, attributed the coalition's cuts to a more than 50 percent drop in available money for grant funding.
"We've got all kinds of criticism this year because we cut everybody," he said.
The coalition has survived by partnering with Alu Like Inc., a statewide nonprofit that provides social services to native Hawaiians. The agency is also looking for state funding and has applied for a federal grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The coalition -- formed 12 years ago to counter an increased presence of drugs, especially crystal meth, on Lanai -- has brought alcohol, drug and tobacco prevention programs into the island's only public school, Lanai High and Elementary.
"We go above and beyond prevention education," Aoki said.
"And we still have a big problem (on Lanai). There may be less adults using, but there are more youths using. We hope we will help to curb the drug use," she said, adding that the state's first "ice" arrest was made on Lanai in the late '80s.
The partnership with Alu Like relieves some of the coalition's financial worries but does not guarantee the agency will be able to provide the community with as many programs as it has in the past, she said.
Butch Gima, a coalition board member and Lanai's only full-time drug treatment therapist, said the organization is still in a transition phase "trying to figure out how to best merge the needs for both agencies."
"We're recognizing what each organization has to offer," he said.
Gima is one of four specialists from Lanai who will attend today's drug summit, hosted by Lt. Gov. James Aiona Jr. at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort.
He said that at the conference he will try to drum up more support for the coalition in hopes of heading off a bigger drug problem on Lanai.
"Treatment is important, but I don't think we can put all of our eggs in that basket," he said. "By the time you get to treatment, a lot of times the damage has been done."
