U.S. municipal
officials talk ‘ice’

A Big Isle county aide exhorts
mainland counterparts to keep
pressing for solutions

Billy Kenoi of the Hawaii County Mayor's Office has a message for communities besieged by methamphetamine: Don't give up.

"You save one man, you save one person -- he's no longer abusing his wife, he's no longer neglecting or abusing his children," Kenoi told some 150 county officials from Florida to Washington state who gathered in Honolulu yesterday.

"There are multiple stories of success. We can't give up," Kenoi said. "It's too important."

The National Association of Counties' first-ever "town hall" session on methamphetamine offered no miracle solutions for defeating meth, an illegal drug blamed for boosting crime and child abuse across the nation.

Instead, authorities spoke of the need to attack the problem from all angles: law enforcement, treatment, and preventive education in schools. Working closely with federal and state governments is also important.

The association highlighted the vast reach of the meth plague earlier this month when it said that nearly 90 percent of counties surveyed reported a rise in meth-related arrests in the last three years.

More than half of the nation's sheriffs interviewed also said they considered meth the most serious problem facing their departments.

Hawaii was one of the first states to suffer an influx of methamphetamine -- also known in the islands as crystal methamphetamine or "ice" -- with police officers here detecting sales of the drug in the late 1980s.

On the Big Island, Kenoi said his county obtained advice and assistance from substance abuse facilities across the country by writing them for help.

The county also succeeded in securing federal help against the drug by making a strong case to Washington that Hawaii County's efforts could offer lessons to other communities.

"A lot of naysayers, and people who don't want to roll up their sleeves and get in the trenches and do the hard work that it takes to save people in our community -- people say the recidivism rate is so high, you'll lose 60 to 70 percent back to ice," Kenoi said.

"They're looking at it the wrong way. You're saving 30 to 40 percent."

Methamphetamine has challenged counties in many ways.

Child welfare agencies say rising numbers of children are being removed from their homes because their meth-addicted parents neglect or abuse them.

Meth users are also packing jails. The counties association survey showed 50 percent of counties estimate one-fifth of their jail inmates were caught for committing meth-related crimes.

Among the anecdotes shared yesterday was the story of a 14-month-old toddler wandering Oregon city streets in diapers because the baby's parents were strung out on methamphetamine. Another was of an Oahu meth addict who fatally stabbed his mother and aunt before burning down their Kailua home.