AID TO BIG ISLAND DRUG LAB HELPS POLICE BATTLE DEALERS

Big Island police have obtained money for new drug lab equipment they hope
will allow them to identify illegal substances and lock up dealers more
quickly.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye secured $350,000 in federal rural development
assistance for the new lab equipment, and the county obtained additional
money through a Byrne Memorial Grant.

Crystal methamphetamine has evolved into the "drug of choice" on the Big
Island and police sometimes run into a frustrating scenario: They catch
people with "ice" and arrest them, but then have to let them go.

>From the time police make arrests, they have 48 hours to either charge the
suspects or release them. But to charge someone with drug possession, police
say they need to test the powder, crystals or other substances they seized
to confirm they have actually seized illegal drugs.

Big Island police have a lab for drug testing, but the workload for the drug
lab skyrocketed from 821 tests in 1999 to more than 10,000 in 2001, and a
backlog has built up, according to a police spokesman.

That has led to delays in some tests, which means some suspects have to be
released without charges until the drugs can be tested and charges can be
filed.

In some cases, those people go right back to dealing, police said.

"The public sees someone getting arrested and released, arrested and
released, and people wonder, 'Why do we even call the cops?' " said Billy
Kenoi, executive assistant to Mayor Harry Kim.

Kenoi was appointed by Kim to coordinate county efforts to combat crystal
methamphetamine use on the Big Island.

State and federal law enforcement authorities are expressing growing concern
with methamphetamine use, which is considered to be a particularly acute
problem on the Big Island.

Federal officials report crystal methamphetamine had a role in 44 percent of
the state's homicides, and 90 percent of the 2,300 confirmed cases of child
abuse each year. About 40 percent of the people arrested by Honolulu police
test positive for ice use.

Police said the problem with methamphetamine has increased the work load on
the Big Island lab, but other drugs are also to blame. Heroin, cocaine and
marijuana seizures also contribute to the workload.

Not everyone agrees it's a good idea for individual police departments to
run their own drug-testing labs.

"There should be a regional lab for the state rather than having individual
departments set up their own labs," Kaua'i Police Chief George Freitas said.
"It's the kind of service that needs to be consolidated. These things are
very expensive to set up and operate."

Kaua'i police conduct in-house testing for blood-alcohol analysis only.
Drugs such as cocaine, crystal meth and LSD are sent to the Honolulu Police
Department lab for testing, and the turnaround time in recent months has
been only one or two weeks, Freitas said.

The Maui Police Department has a chemist on staff to run its own
drug-testing lab, which also was established with grant money. Police Chief
Tom Phillips said the caseload is high, but that field tests conducted by
police officers usually are enough to proceed with charging suspects.

More sophisticated analysis is done as the drug cases near trial, he said.

The Honolulu Police Department's lab deals with testing of nearly all
controlled substances, including crystal meth, heroin and LSD, said Joanne
Furuya, director of Honolulu police's scientific investigation section.

Her staff of five drug analysts is also on-call during the weekends and can
provide findings within a 24-hour period for cases that need quick results.

"The remaining ongoing investigations are worked on as time permits, but the
rush cases take first priority," Furuya said.

Combating "ice" use on the Big Island has been a priority for the Kim
administration. Officials say the county leads the state in trafficking and
use of crystal methamphetamine, with police reporting a tenfold increase in
arrests for methamphetamine from 1998 to 2000.

Inouye and Asa Hutchinson, head of the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration, attended an "Ice Summit" in August in Kona that brought
together high-level federal, state and county officials and other community
members to discuss what could be done about the drug problem. The event was
one of only four such summits held in the country.

Other developments since the summit include the start of Drug Court
operations on the Big Island that offer a strict treatment and monitoring
program as an alternative to jail for nonviolent drug offenders. Plans are
under way to implement a similar program for juvenile offenders.

Additional federal money is being used for anti-drug youth programs, and the
Big Island Substance Abuse Council has been able to put new substance abuse
counselors at Hilo, Honoka'a, Laupahoehoe and Kealakehe high schools.