PREVENTION AND CARE CRUCIAL IN WAR ON ICE

Ice -- crystal methamphetamine -- is a scourge of nearly glacial
proportions that will require a sustained assault on multiple fronts
to shrink to manageable levels.

So it's heartening to see our elected leaders grappling with the
problem, both by narrowing some gaps in efforts to reach those
already addicted and by mounting an aggressive prevention campaign.

In addition to the catastrophic health effects -- heart and brain
damage topping the list -- ice is the catalyst for family breakdown
and all the community ills that result. It's a social disease that
drives the crime rate skyward, too. A 2002 survey of arrests in
Honolulu found that nearly 45 percent of men arrested in Honolulu
tested positive for ice, compared with just over 38 percent the previous year.

Such statistics have rightly compelled lawmakers to focus attention
on treatment-- both within prison walls and in the community-- to
break the cycle of crime and misery for as many people as possible.

Several individual initiatives moving through the Legislature deserve
support. These include programs that allow medical professionals to
direct patients to drug treatment at key intervention points.

One effort, contained in the companion bills SB 2132 and HB 2045,
would route pregnant addicts directly to drug treatment through their
schedule of prenatal care appointments. Similarly, the twin measures
SB 2364 and HB 2401 would pick up abusers of the drug through
emergency-room trauma cases.

Some of the state's capital improvement budget will be invested
wisely in residential treatment facilities aimed at the prison
population as well as the broader community. Separating addicts from
the environment that supports the habit is seen as the wisest course,
and improved models of treatment for ice and other stimulants are
being refined.

But long-term success requires multiple rounds of treatment that
carry a mammoth pricetag. Surely this reinforces the wisdom of a
focus on prevention.

Among the most promising initiatives this year is a major expansion
of campus drug prevention programs at the middle-school level.
Experts in this form of outreach report that a newer approach that is
more interactive and less preachey, giving kids the tools they need
to avoid drugs, should prove more effective.

The war on ice wisely targets the criminal supply side, but it's
crucial that Hawai'i offers a way out for those who otherwise could
be enslaved by drugs.