[ OUR OPINION ]
AG gets results by
turning up heat on ‘ice’CREATION of a small unit in the state attorney general's office aimed at closing drug houses has begun getting positive results. Court orders are keeping alleged drug dealers away from four houses that had been targeted as distribution points for crystal methamphetamine. The dozens of tips received by the new unit each month about drug houses indicate an encouraging degree of community involvement in the war against "ice."
THE ISSUE
A new unit in the Attorney General's Office has successfully obtained court orders to shut down drug houses.
State law has allowed authorities to permit closure and even forfeiture of ownership of drug-dealing magnets since 1990. It was expanded in later years to allow court orders against targeted people from being able to enter such buildings. Last year's Legislature took an important further step in providing funding of $100,000 a year to pay for a full-time deputy attorney general and a part-timer comprising a Drug Nuisance Abatement Unit to make use of the law.
Much of the law's efficacy can be attributed to its application in civil court, relieving authorities from having to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, they must show a preponderance of evidence -- more likely than not -- that a house was used in the manufacture or distribution of drugs.
The law does not allow reckless litigation by the government. After a similar drug-nuisance abatement unit tried to shut down a popular nightclub in Seattle in 1997 because of cocaine traffic, a three-judge appellate court ruled that it had violated the owners' due-process rights and tried to engage in an unconstitutional taking of their property. The owners had been cooperating with police before the closure.
In January the new Hawaii unit obtained its first court order prohibiting four people from entering an alleged drug house in Wahiawa. Authorities allege that two men ran a drug trade from the home after their father was put in prison for a drug-related offense. Similar orders have been issued barring four named drug suspects from entering a house in Kalihi, eight from entering a house in Waipahu and three from entering a house in Lahaina, Maui.
The court order against those suspected of drug activity at the Kalihi house has stopped drug trafficking from that house. While that has been an improvement, neighbors told the Star-Bulletin's Mary Vorsino that it has not scared other dealers away from the area. "I think they should all be stopped," said one neighbor.
Deputy Attorney General Kurt Spohn said the operation also has produced residual scampering by drug dealers. Lawsuits in pursuit of court orders are outnumbered by instances of landlords evicting tenants following reports of suspicious activity. "Just the fact that something is happening is enough to make them scatter," Spohn said.
