POLITICAL PRIZE: 'ICE' ATTACK

The Lingle administration and the Democratic Legislature are drawing
skepticism for racing on separate tracks to control the agenda for solving
Hawai'i's crushing problem of crystal methamphetamine addiction.

The House and Senate formed a special joint committee to draft an "ice"
attack plan before the January legislative session, and Lt. Gov. James
"Duke" Aiona is leading an administrative task force to do essentially the
same thing.

But we shouldn't be so fast to slam them for seeming to work at
cross-purposes. Hawai'i has been a one-party state for so long that we've
forgotten how a new era of old-fashioned political competition can serve
the public interest.

The demand for action against the crystal meth epidemic rose from the
grass-roots.

Concerned citizens in several communities grew tired of soaring crime,
young lives destroyed by ice addiction and families torn apart. They took
to the streets, and politicians took notice.

In past years, one party - the Democrats - would have decided if the drug
problem needed attention, what was to be done and with what urgency.
Solutions could drag over several legislative sessions - if they came at all.

But with Republican Linda Lingle's election as governor, there's real
competition between the two parties for the first time in 40 years. This
brings a built-in urgency for each party to get there first with the best
solutions.

Ultimately, they'll be expected to work together in the best public
interest and mesh their ideas on controlling ice. But for now, competition
is welcome. The harder each party works to outdo the other with superior
ideas, the better the choices we'll have when it comes time to draft
legislation and enact administrative policies.

What we can't have is a repeat of the posturing we saw on education reform
in the last Legislature, when lawmakers refused to consider Lingle's
proposal for locally elected school boards, Lingle vetoed the Legislature's
plan for local administrative school complexes, and we ended up where we
started - nowhere.

With election-year fanfare, political stakes will be high to show progress
in battling crystal meth. Neither side will want to face voters
empty-handed, almost assuring a productive compromise.

This multidimensional problem requires solutions that include better
prevention, earlier detection of addiction, more effective and accessible
treatment, and criminal laws and correctional policies that both protect
the public and attack the underlying problem of drug addiction.

Ice is relatively cheap to make and easy to distribute. Authorities
estimate there are 30,000 hard-core users in Hawai'i who spend an average
of $170 a day on their addiction, often raised from property crimes.

Drug-related crime clogs our courts and prisons. Honolulu leads the nation
in the number of arrested males testing positively for crystal meth -
nearly 45 percent in 2002. Police say ice addiction might touch 75 percent
of local crime.

Addiction crosses generational lines and is a leading cause of domestic
violence and child abuse. We've seen people who seemed to have it all -
powerful public officials, prominent attorneys, popular entertainers - land
in prison for ice-related offenses.

Jason Perry, the drug dealer recently convicted of two brutal murders, was
the star pitcher on my son's Little League team. He was a nice kid from a
good family, and the mind can't comprehend how he got from there to here.

The only thing for sure is that it was a road paved with ice.

If the governor and Legislature can break this cycle of destruction that
poisons our society, they'll deserve all the credit we can heap upon them.