COAST GUARD CUTTING BACK ON DRUG PATROLS

The Coast Guard is proud of its history of being America's police force
on the water for more than 200 years.

Recently, those duties have included fighting the importation of illegal
drugs into Hawai"i.

But although drug interdiction is still a primary component of the Coast
Guard's role, recent federal belt-tightening is expected to cause some
problems in enforcement.

"Our budget has been cut recently 15 to 30 percent in operations, and
that will affect those long-range patrols. We've scaled back recently,
and that's not helping our cause," said Chief Gary Openshaw, a Coast
Guard spokesman on Oahu.

Openshaw said he wasn't aware of any recent big stops by the Coast Guard
patrols in the ocean waters around Kaua"i or the rest of the state.

"There was a bust recently in the San Diego (Calif.) area. Seventy-five
tons of cocaine were seized," he said.

Openshaw noted that the illicit drug Coast Guard patrols are primarily
on the lookout for in Hawaiian waters is heroin.

The first big post-Vietnam War drug bust by the Coast Guard was
accomplished March 8, 1973, in mainland waters, when the USCG Dauntless
seized a 38-foot sports fishing boat with more than a ton of marijuana
on board and arrested its master and crew.

In fiscal year 1997, the Coast Guard seized 103,000 pounds of cocaine
and 102,000
pounds of marijuana.

Coast Guard officers on active duty are empowered to board, examine,
inspect, search, seize and arrest for violations upon vessels and waters
over which the United States has jurisdiction.

A community coalition on Kaua"i recently called for an intensified
anti-drug effort. Members of the group went with Kaua"i County Police
officials to visit the Kittiwake, a Coast Guard cutter stationed at
Nawiliwili.